Bill Maher says President Trump has invited him back to the White House for a second dinner, telling Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel on his “Club Random” podcast Monday that the meal is set for next week.
“I’m having dinner with him next week,” Maher said.
Maher described how the invitation came about after their first dinner together. “After the first dinner, I went back to doing what I do. But then, like, he just, out of the blue, ‘Let’s have dinner again.’ And I was like, great. And he was really nice. Like, ‘I promise I won’t say bad things about you like I did the last time.'”
“And I texted back, and I said, ‘You know what, you’re the president of the United States. Say whatever the f— you want. I’m just glad we’re talking.'”
Maher compared Trump’s needling to the old-school insult comedy of Don Rickles. “It’s like being called a ‘hockey puck’ by Don Rickles. It’s just what he does. It’s how he talks,” he said.
He said he’s baffled that anyone would pass up a chance like this. “It blows my mind” that people would turn down “a private dinner in the White House with the president, just a few people, say whatever you want,” Maher said.
Maher also used the moment to call out comedian and producer Larry David, who publicly attacked him over the first dinner, once comparing dining with Trump to having dinner with Hitler. Maher noted that David’s own agent, Emanuel, has also been in contact with the president.
“It’s so interesting to me that Larry David, like, I’m the devil because I talk to him, but his own agent just talked to him on Monday,” Maher said, as Emanuel tried to stay out of it. “You must recognize the hypocrisy there. Somehow, when it’s his own agent doing the exact same thing, then we don’t play the Hitler card.”
Maher has previously drawn a contrast between his comfort level with Trump and with past Democratic presidents. “I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,” he said. “And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but 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.”
Maher has said this year that his own vote is “in play” for 2028, suggesting he’d be open to backing Republicans like Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio if Democrats keep moving further left.
