President Trump unloaded on Bill Maher in a nearly 500-word Truth Social post Saturday, calling the HBO host "a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT" and "a jerk" after Maher spent his Friday show taking shots at the president, his supporters, and even Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The post recounted a White House dinner the two shared in spring 2025 — one Trump now says he regrets — and served as a broader warning to Republicans who treat Maher's occasional criticisms of the left as evidence of an ally.
"Bill Maher is a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT, and Republicans should stop using him to show how the Left is coming over our way — Our Base, the Greatest of All Time, laughs at your weakness when you do it!"
That line alone is worth the price of admission. It's directed less at Maher than at the conservative commentators who clip his monologues whenever he criticizes campus protesters or progressive excess, as if a man who backed Kamala Harris over Trump is somehow coming around.
According to Trump, Maher requested the White House visit through a mutual friend. What followed, at least in Trump's telling, was a portrait of a man completely out of his element.
"He came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he would be. He was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a 'Vodka Tonic.'"
Trump added that Maher told him he was "actually scared." The president's tone wasn't entirely hostile on that point — he called the nervousness "somewhat endearing" — before pivoting to the real complaint: the show went right back to form.
"But then I noticed his show started to devolve into the same old story — Very boring, ANTI TRUMP, no mention of the PERFECT Border, Lowest Crime in 125 years, the Mass Removal of Stone Cold Criminals, the 50,000 DOW, the 7,000 S&P (Both Highest Ever!), Least Number of Murders since 1900, Venezuela, 'Midnight Hammer,' Soleimani DEAD, al-Baghdadi DEAD, Lowest Inflation in YEARS (1.2% for last three months!), the Rebuilding of our Military, Eight War Stoppages, and on, and on, and on!"
That's a man keeping receipts. Whether every figure holds up to the decimal point, the underlying frustration is clear: Trump extended a gesture, and Maher pocketed it without offering anything in return.
Trump also noted that Maher asked to return to the White House and requested an invitation to the White House Christmas Party — but never showed, The Daily Caller reported.
The immediate trigger appears to be Friday's episode of "Real Time," where Maher went after Trump's Monday Truth Social post about China and Canadian ice hockey. In that post, Trump had written:
"The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup."
Trump says the line was obviously a joke — a jab at Canada's growing coziness with China. Maher treated it as a serious policy statement and ran with it. Trump's characterization of Maher's reaction:
"Well, he went on and on about the Hockey statement, like 'What kind of a person would say such a foolish thing as this,' as though I were being serious when I said it."
Maher also used Friday's show to allude to Trump being mentioned in the Epstein Files, joke about the president's age, and take swipes at Bondi. His opening monologue included this gem aimed at Trump's base:
"A lot of conservative America is very butt-hurt these days. They're still recovering from the halftime show."
That was a reference to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX halftime performance, which Trump had separately called "absolutely terrible" in an earlier Truth Social post.
The most interesting part of Trump's post isn't the insults. It's the strategic message buried inside them.
For years, a certain strain of conservative punditry has treated Maher as a gateway figure — proof that "even the left" sees how crazy things have gotten. Every time Maher criticizes cancel culture or mocks progressive orthodoxy, the clips circulate through right-leaning media like contraband.
Trump is telling his base to stop falling for it. Maher votes Democratic. He backed Harris. His occasional heresies against progressive excess don't make him an honest broker — they make him a comedian who knows where the funny is. There's a difference between a man who shares your principles and a man who occasionally shares your punchlines.
Trump compared Maher to Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Stephen Colbert — then added, with characteristic precision, that Maher is "slightly more talented." That backhanded compliment is the whole thesis: Maher is a late-night entertainer with a political lean, not a thinker whose approval conservatives should court.
"Bill continues to suffer from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS!), and there is nothing that will ever be done to cure him of this very serious disease."
Trump closed the post with the confidence of a man who knows his time is better spent elsewhere — and wants everyone else to know it too.
"Regardless, I'd much rather spend my time MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN than wasting it on him."
"Thank you for your attention to this minor matter!"
This wasn't a feud. It was a memo. Trump used Maher as the occasion, but the message was for the right: stop chasing validation from people who will never give it. A comedian who begs for a White House dinner, orders a vodka tonic to steady his nerves, then goes back on television to mock you isn't an ally flirting with conversion. He's a performer who found better material.
Neither the White House nor Maher's show responded to requests for comment. The silence from Maher's side is probably wise. There's no winning a public exchange with a man who turns a dinner invite into a 500-word demolition — and signs off by calling you a minor matter.
