Updated October 26, 2026, 2:07 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump wants Bill Maher to lose his number.
The president attacked the “Real Time” host at length in a 1,300-word rant on Truth Social on Sunday (Oct. 25), calling the comedian a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER” after they recently had dinner together at the White House. Musician Kid Rock and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith also joined them for dinner.
In his message, Trump said he “didn’t learn anything” at the dinner, “felt it was a waste of time” and criticized Maher repeatedly, calling him “not very smart,” “not a nice guy, and what he says is not what he believes.”
USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for Maher for comment.
Trump’s Oct. 15 dinner with Maher was the second: The president and the comedian had previously dined at the White House in 2025. Maher received criticism for that dinner, with “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David likening him to sitting at a table with Adolf Hitler. But Maher defended the meeting, saying “all I ever liked” was Trump being absent during the dinner.
Trump’s main problem at their second dinner seemed less to do with the meeting itself than with the first show Maher put on afterward. Maher opened his Oct. 23 episode of “Real Time” by discussing the president’s low approval ratings heading into the midterm elections.
“After the second dinner, Bill’s ‘show’ was much worse than the first,” Trump wrote in his message. “He’s gone crazy! He’s without courage, because he enjoyed every minute of it.”
Trump ended the message by appearing to close the door on a third dinner: “Bill: Don’t call again.”
Maher spoke at his second White House dinner with Trump in his Oct. 23 monologue and defended continuing to sit down with the president.
“I know, I’m the bad guy because I’m going to tell the man face to face the things you write in articles he’ll never read,” Maher said. “But OK. You know what? (Go) you. I like these dinners.”
Maher said he challenged Trump on several issues during the dinner, including the president’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. But he paid tribute to the president, saying he “never got angry.” Later in the series, Maher clapped back saying he could “talk to him like I talk to any guy in a bar.”
Maher also met former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in the episode. She opened the interview by relaying a message from Trump. “I told him I’d come on the show, and he said, ‘Tell him he loved that dinner and he knows it,'” Leavitt said. Trump previously called it “a complete waste of time for me to have this idiot in the White House” for their first dinner in 2025.
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