Bill Maher recently assessed Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, labeling it a ‘s**tshow’, despite a cordial dinner he had with the president at the White House during this period.
The liberal comic made headlines describing the meeting with Trump, despite being longtime enemies who publicly lambasted each other.
Acknowledging the pleasant evening he spent with Trump, Kid Rock, and Dana White, Maher emphasized that overall, the initial months of Trump’s presidency have been tumultuous.
‘In a word: s**tshow,’ he told The Free Press.
In a reflective op-ed, Maher reiterated his attempt not to overreact to every situation, stating his intention to approach issues without preconceived biases or judgments.
‘But after 100 days, there are probably 100 things to legitimately hate,’ he said, before stating a lengthy list of grievances toward the president.
He called DOGE ‘inefficient,’ said the president was ‘disappearing people,’ getting into fights with judges, cutting aid money that was ‘killing people overseas’ and caused a market collapse.
‘And I want to emphasize: None of my disapproval for any of this comes from reflexive Republican opposition. On all these issues, it’s just objectively bad. And they know that, too,’ Maher concluded.
Bill Maher declared Donald Trump’s first 100 days a ‘s**tshow’ despite spending one of them at the White House having what he called a cordial dinner with the president
The liberal comic made headlines describing the meeting with Trump, despite being longtime enemies who publicly lambasted each other
Maher has attacked Trump on his HBO show dating back over a decade, when the two were involved in a lawsuit over Maher claiming the president’s father was an orangutan.
On a recent show, he took time out exclusively to ‘give you my book report on my visit to the White House,’ which saw him have dinner with Trump and UFC owner Dana White.
The lefty comedian confirmed the meeting had been arranged by musician and Trump fan Kid Rock, who also attended: ‘Because we share a belief that there’s gotta be something better than hurling insults at each other from 3,000 miles away.’
He slammed those who saw the event as some kind of important diplomacy meeting.
‘For all the people who treated this like it was some sort of summit meeting, you’re ridiculous. Like I was gonna sign a treaty or something? I’m a f***ing comedian, I have no power! He’s the most powerful leader in the world, I’m not the leader of anything,’ Maher said.
The comic did say that he wanted to represent ‘a contingent of centrist-minded people who believe there’s got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.’
He confirmed that Trump was a ‘different’ person than he’d seen in the public eye over the last decade and even the night before, when the president publicly wondered if the meeting was even a good idea.
‘The guy I met is not the person who, the night before, s***-tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this dinner was a bad idea, and what a deranged asshole I was.’
However, Maher said in an op-ed that even given the nice time he had with Trump, Kid Rock and Dana White, the opening months of his presidency have not been good
Maher reaffirmed that he meant what he said when he tried not to be hysterical about every little thing, saying he’s ‘not going to pre-hate anything
‘He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,’ Maher added.
Perhaps most striking to Maher was that Trump ‘laughed’ and has a sense of humor about himself.
‘First good sign, before I left for the capital, I had my staff collect and print out this list of almost 60 different insulting epithets that the president said about me,’ Maher said.
‘I brought this to the White House because I wanted him to sign it, which he did with good humor,’ he added.
He joked about how the hoards of MAGA haters must be hating this: ‘I know as I say that, millions of liberal sphincters just tightened.’
‘I’m gonna report what happened and you decide. If that’s not enough pure Trump hate for you, I don’t give a f***,’ Maher said unapologetically.
He said that the president did not ask him for his support and when he gifted Maher several Trump hats, he didn’t ask him to take a photograph wearing them.
Maher has been attacked by the left, including a scathing New York Times op-ed by comedy legend Larry David comparing the meeting to sitting down with Hitler.
‘I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity,’ David wrote, comparing meeting Trump now to meeting Hitler in 1939.
Maher finally responded to David in an interview with Piers Morgan and he said David was insulting to Holocaust victims.
‘I just think it’s kind of insulting to six million dead Jews, you know, like that should kind of be in its own place in history. And I know people can say, well, we’re just comparing it in this way. Well, it’s an argument you kind of lost just to start it,’ Maher said.
Maher added that while ‘nobody has been harder’ on Trump than he has, references to Hitler need to remain separate because he ‘is the GOAT of evil.’
‘So, you know, did I think that was appropriate? No, but people have the right to disagree.’
Morgan attempted to add fuel to the fire by suggesting that David has been silent about the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and rising antisemitism in America.
Maher noted that ‘that is an interesting irony’ but added that he hopes things can be repaired between himself and the Seinfeld co-creator, despite admitting the op-ed ‘wasn’t my favourite moment of our friendship.’
‘I don’t want to make this constantly personal with me and Larry. I mean, we might be friends again. I don’t know, you know, I can be. I mean, I can take a shot, and I also can absolutely take it when people disagree with me,’ he said.
‘That’s not exactly the way I would have done it. But, you know, I again, let’s, let’s go to the irony. Let’s go back to what my original thing was. There’s got to be a better way than hurling insults and not talking to people. So, if I could talk to Trump, I could talk to Larry David too.’
