Bill Maher Says Trump Was ‘Gracious and Measured’ During White House Dinner, Swears ‘I Wasn’t High’ | Video

Bill Maher revealed he likes it when people are nice to him on Friday’s episode of “Real Time,” when he gave viewers a roughly 14-minute-long account of his dinner with Donald Trump at the White House — which in large part consisted of him explaining how nice Trump was to him in private.

In fact, Maher went so far as to call the president, whose administration is currently refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to recover an innocent man it illegally deported to a brutal prison in El Salvador, “gracious and measured.”

“And I wasn’t high,” Maher insisted.

You can watch the whole commentary below:

Maher explained how the dinner came together — Trump supporter Kid Rock organized it — adding “because we share a belief that there’s got to be something better than hurling insults from 3000 miles away. And let me first say that to all the people who treated this like it was some kind of summit meeting, you’re ridiculous. Like I was going to sign a treaty or something. I have no power. I’m a f—ing comedian, and he’s the most powerful leader in the world. I’m not the leader of anything except maybe a contingent of centrist minded people who think there’s got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.”

From there, Maher rambled about the dinner itself, starting with his view Trump was very different in person than in public, specifically because he was willing to sign a document Maher printed out listing all the ways Trump has insulted him.

“I brought this to the White House because I wanted him to sign it, which he did. And with good humor. And I know as I say that, millions of liberal sphincters just tightened. ‘Oh my god, Bill, are you going to say something nice about him?'” Maher straw-manned. “What I’m going to do is report exactly what happened. You decide what you think about it, and if that’s not enough, pure Trump hate for you. I don’t give a f—.”

Maher said he didn’t “go MAGA,” and added, “to the President’s credit, there was no pressure to.” Ok.

Maher noted that Trump gave him “a bunch of hats, but he didn’t ask me to take a picture in one, which I appreciated. The guy I met is not the person who the night before the dinner shit, tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this dinner was a bad idea, and what a deranged asshole I was. I read it and thought, Oh, what a lovely way to welcome someone to your house. But when I got there, that guy wasn’t living there.”

Maher appeared to suggest that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy maybe should have worn a suit during the now-infamous White House meeting when he was shouted at by Trump and Vice President JD Vance. “Now, does Trump want respect? Of course, who doesn’t? My friend said to me, what are you going to wear to the White House? I said, I don’t know, but I’m not going to dress like Zelenskyy, I’ll tell you that,” Maher said.

Maher then seemed impressed because Trump laughs. “I’ve never seen him laugh in public, but he does, including at himself, and it’s not fake. Believe me, as a comedian of 40 years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it, and I thank you for
that,” he said. As examples, Maher described a conversation they had about Ronald Reagan, and one they had about presidents who had dogs, both of which saw Trump chuckle at jokes he made.

Maher says Trump, in private, referred to what happened in the 2020 election as a loss. “I distinctly remember saying, ‘wow, I never thought I’d hear you say that.’ He didn’t get mad. He’s much more self aware than he lets on in public. Look, I get it. It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian. It matters who he is on the world stage. I’m just taking as a positive that this person exists.” Maher continued.

“Everything I’ve ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent, at least on this night with this guy,” Maher insisted.

Maher said he’s “had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don’t look you in the eye, people who don’t really listen because they just want to get to their next thing, people whose response to things you say just doesn’t track… none of that was him, and he mostly steered the conversation to ‘what do you think about this?’ I know your mind is blown. So is mine.”

He circled back to this later in the segment when he indicated that his experience might connect to political difficulties Democrats are having. “I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him, and honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, and I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will me, I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days,” he said.

Maher gave examples of points where he said he argued with Trump, “who didn’t get mad or call me a left wing lunatic. He took it in.” He also gave an extended ramble about things he agrees with Trump on, which were:

“Moving Israel’s embassy to Jerusalem. Loved it. The border did need to be controlled. I’m glad the cops are getting their morale back. DEI had gone too far. Biological men shouldn’t be playing women’s sports. Europe should pay for their defense. And of course, it makes sense that Arab countries should take in Arab refugees, like the million Syrians who wound up in Germany. When Saudi Arabia took none.”

Maher said Trump agreed with him on that latter point, and gushed that Trump “was even OK” when he brought up the time Trump sued him for joking that his father was an orangutan.

Then the HBO host said the “most surreal part” was later when he got home, turned on the news and saw Trump acting like the jerk he always does in public. “And I’m like, Who’s that guy? What happened to Glenda the good witch? And why can’t we get the guy I met to be the public guy?”

About that question though, Maher has nothing for you. “I’m not saying it’s our responsibility to do that. It’s not. I’m just reporting exactly what I saw,” he said. “Over two and a half hours, I went into the mine, and that’s what’s down there. A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House, a person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f—ed up. It’s just not as f—ed up as I thought it was.”

Maher insisted he’s not going to start pulling punches with Trump, and tried to suggest he didn’t during the meeting.

“At one point, I said to him, you’re scaring people. Do you really want to be scaring your own citizens so much? And I know now you’re all saying and what did he say to that? Honestly, I don’t remember,” Maher explained. “But it wasn’t ‘okay. I’ll stop.’ So MAGA fans, don’t worry. Your boy gave me nothing, just hats, hats and a very generous amount of time, and a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend, even though I’m not MAGA, which was the point of the dinner.”

“Okay, that’s my report. You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured, and why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know, and I can’t answer, and it’s not my place to answer. I’m just telling you what I saw,” Maher said, quickly adding, “and I wasn’t high.”

“Damn, missed opportunity,” he joked.

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