Bill Maher Leaks Some Details About His Dinner With President Trump

Last week, Bill Maher famously had dinner with President Trump at the White House, a meeting arranged by Kid Rock of all people.

Dana White was also in attendance to round out the table.

Since then, everyone is eager to hear how it went.  What happened?  Any awkward moments?  What did Bill truly think after going and meeting the man he has so often criticized in person, did it change his opinion at all?

I’ll admit it, I’m dying to hear myself.

So I have an update for you.

The full update won’t be out for a couple more days, Bill is saving it for his April 11th HBO show, but we got a little sneak peak today as Bill had Chris Cuomo on his podcast and they talked about it a bit.

Spoiler alert: Bill is not suddenly joining MAGA, but he is admitting there are parts of President Trump he finds incredible.

Here’s more from The Wrap:

Bill Maher Says Trump Is ‘One of the Most Effective Politicians’ Because People ‘Can Smell a Phony a Mile Away’

Speaking to Chris Cuomo on the most recent episode of “Club Random” podcast, released Sunday, Maher argued that a key to Trump’s continued success is, essentially, that he keeps it real in a way almost no other politician does.

“Trump is one of the most effective politicians, whatever you think of the policy or him as a person, just as a politician,” the host said. “Just understanding that always lean in to being more who you are. The people are not savvy about issues but they smell a phony a mile away. That kind of s–t? Nobody else does it.”

“There’s a couple of times when – I mean, look, I’ve been his biggest critic for good reason and when he got reelected I said, ‘I’m not going to pre-hate anything.’ And then the first week, I said ‘well there’s lots of things I hate because I do,’” Maher continued. “But the way he can do that, and sometimes make me go, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to give it up.’”

Watch the short clip here:

Bill Maher admitted something the mainstream media still avoids: Donald Trump is among the most effective politicians of our era.pic.twitter.com/62V4eGKlLt

— Department of Government Efficiency News (@DOGE__news) April 7, 2025

I thought these were two of the best comments in response:

Bill has promised to release his full reaction and comments in three days on April 11th on Real Time:

Hey everybody, thank you for all the interest in my dinner with the president last night – I promise, all will be revealed on the next @RealTimers on April 11. As it’s April 1 today, no one would believe what I said today anyway!

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 1, 2025

MORE HERE:

UPDATE: Kid Rock Says “Weirdly Awesome” Dinner With Trump and Bill Maher Went “So Well”!

Kid Rock Shares What He Thinks Bill Maher Will Say About Meeting President Trump

Kid Rock Shares What He Thinks Bill Maher Will Say About Meeting President Trump

More details continue to emerge about the "strangely awesome" dinner between longtime enemies, President Trump and Bill Maher.

Kid Rock famously brokered the peace dinner, modeling what he says should be a path for the nation.

I first brought you a report last night, which I will repost down below in case you missed it.  But now we have new details emerging that are honestly pretty cool to hear.

Let's start with this one....

Bill Maher is a comedian at heart.  You might not like him or agree with him, but he is a successful comedian and at many times he's made me laugh over the years.  Certainly not always, and I think hatred has clouded his judgment too often in recent years, but I was proud to see he approached this meeting with respect for the office of the President, respect even for President Trump, and in a way only a comedian could.

Maher reportedly brought a list of insults President Trump had said about him over the years, which you have to admit is a pretty funny and self-deprecating thing to do.

But it was President Trump's response that stole the show.

Take a look:

Bill Maher brought a list of insults President Trump had said about him over the years during their dinner at the White House.

And here's what Trump did in response. pic.twitter.com/4NUxan1NpV

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) April 1, 2025

TRANSCRIPT:

And he has been relentless really ever since. Yeah, well, Bill, when he showed up at the White House, he had actually brought a list of insults Trump had said about him and gave it to Trump. And what did he do? He signed it, which is very Trumpian. And they laughed and they laughed.

Kudos to Maher. You know, he knows this is going to burn whatever bridge that remains with the tolerant left. But he said full steam ahead. And you’ve got to give credit to Kid Rock.

You know, he went out on a limb, you know, as a bridge between two quarreling people that he happens to be friends with, and that is sharing the risk at its best. And what do you do when you share the risk? It causes other people to share the risk too. So both of these guys had something to lose, but they put their egos aside because they realize there’s nothing to lose at all once you put your egos aside.

And because Kid Rock was able to take the risk, they all decided to take the risk, and I think they’re going to win from it. The scariest part for a lot of people is finding out that Trump might be a good person because you’ve sunk so much of your energy and your life into him being bad. So you might not want to meet him because the moment that you have to relinquish any of that sunk cost, what’s left?

ADVERTISEMENT

That’s why you still have, and I think it’s easier for Democrats. It’s not for never-Trump Republicans. They can’t let it go because their entire identity is wrapped around that definition of who they are. They may go into a room with them.

That sunk cost destroys them. That’s why I never want to meet AOC. Yeah, it’ll make it harder for me to ridicule her. Yes, that is so true.

I don’t want to be empathetic. Yes, that’s why I wish I never met you. Yeah, exactly. What?

What? Did you just say I would be attracted to AOC? Where did you get that from? You’re a live straight man.

Backup video here with captions added:

Bill Maher brought a list of insults President Trump had said about him over the years during their dinner at the White House.

And here's what Trump did in response. pic.twitter.com/6GB03n4rIw

— Noah Christopher (@DailyNoahNews) April 2, 2025

You gotta love President Trump's sense of humor!

Good man, and credit to Bill Maher too.

Next up, we have Kid Rock on with Sean Hannity to give a bunch more details, including what he thinks Bill Maher will eventually say about the meeting.

Watch here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Sean: With more on yesterday's White House dinner music — what a cool idea. How did you pull this off? How did you make that happen? This is one of those moments I would've loved to have been a fly on that wall.

ADVERTISEMENT

Whizzco

Kid Rock: I heard that from a lot of people. It started doing the show and the podcast last year, and again this year. They have things in common. Bill has a little bit more than unkind to the President. I'm friendly with them both, and I wondered if they could sit down and break bread.

This country is so divided. I'm like, what if we could have some laughs and talk about some things we agree on, and maybe try to set an example for the reasonable people of this country. It's okay to disagree on things, and we can talk a little smack about each other, but at the end of the day, we are all on the same team.

Sean: We live in the greatest country. But he's been a harsh critic of President Trump. You asked the President about it — what was his first reaction?

Kid Rock: He called me a couple times. He's like, "What have you got me into?" I said, "Mr. President, talk to Bill." It was very nerve-racking for me leading up to it because I'm like, what if this goes terrible and things go sideways?

It ruins a lot of my credibility with someone I consider a dear friend — the President. My heart was pure going into this, just trying to do the right thing. And Bill totally got it. He was like, "I'm not going to sabotage something that could bring us and this country closer together." I was like, "Mr. President, he totally gets it."

And my mind was blown at how well they got along. We talked about things we had in common. The President gave us a great tour of the White House and the private residence. He called me later that night — Dana and I went out to catch up — and it must have been closer to midnight, the President called me.

And he thought it went great — and so did I.

Sean: Bring us all in that room. You talked about things that maybe they did agree on. Was there any disagreement at any point? What was his reaction walking in there?

My understanding was this was his first time — and he's donated a fortune to Democrats. He never got invited to the White House.

Kid Rock: I couldn't believe that when he said that. They were like, "Would you like to see the private residence?" He said, "Yes," and Bill said, "I've never even been there." It blew my mind going up there.

He's such a gracious host. He's so fun to be around. So pleasant and funny and smart — just a guy's guy. All of us there are "sticks and stones" guys, so jokes — we don't care about that. Unlike a lot of these snowflakes over the years, where you say one thing and they're sore about it — we don't care about that.

It was incredible. Dana was like, "Dude — you did a great thing." And it really made me feel good and proud. I've been a very polarizing figure in my own right, so trying to bring people together...

Sean: You've been polarizing? I don't believe that for one second. Bill is going to go on his show — what do you think, based on being there, he's going to say?

Kid Rock: I think he's going to say nice things about the President. He's not going to have a MAGA hat on, and he's probably not going to...

Sean: Will you have your outfit on?

Kid Rock: Here's a fun story. I was in the Oval Office with that outfit on — so I brought a change of clothes for dinner. That thing is very hot. But Dana told me — he goes, when Bill Maher walked into the Oval Office, he said he looked pretty nervous.

The President said something, and Bill was like, "I need a drink." He said he wanted a margarita, and the President's people grabbed a margarita, and we had a great time.

Sean: He goes on his show — is he going to say, "I really like this guy, we had a really good conversation, we had a meeting of the minds"? Are there any points that they disagree? What’s he going to say?

Kid Rock: I believe he's going to go on the show and say nice things. I think he's going to say we don’t agree politically. It freaks out Bill when people are talking about a third term.

They talked about it a little bit, but that was something that I would consider private. I feel uncomfortable sharing that, but if the President wanted to — he could.

We basically stuck to things that we agree on. They both have extremely deep knowledge of American history. Both are very smart guys and very reasonable people, even though they've had this pretty harsh relationship.

If they can do it — maybe that family member you have with... maybe you can go back and be like, "Let's have dinner and talk about what we do have in common."

ADVERTISEMENT

Sean: It’s a great thing you did, on every level. What was maybe a moment that stood out — something you feel free to share where maybe his reaction to something...

He said he was nervous when he came in. He had the drink — that hopefully settled him down a little bit. I’m not sure if he’s allowed to smoke weed in the White House — he talks a lot about that, although some people have according to reports.

In all seriousness — was there a moment when you saw a connection that you didn’t expect?

Kid Rock: The whole dinner. The tour around the White House. The President was so engaged with Bill.

They’re very good friends, so he's usually pretty engaged with us, and he was so engaged with Bill the whole dinner. We kind of sat back and enjoyed the show, and our minds were blown how gracious the President was to have him there — number one.

That's a big deal to have him there, to reach out and say... and he was just engaged with him the whole time.

Load More