President Donald Trump hosted comedian Bill Maher, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith and musician Kid Rock for dinner at the White House Thursday night. Speaking with reporters as he left the White House Friday, Trump confirmed the meeting and called it a success.
“The dinner last night with Kid Rock and Stephen A. and Bill Maher was great,” Trump told reporters, according to C-SPAN. “I think they had a good time.”
Trump did not detail specific topics covered during the meal but said the group talked at length. “We talked about everything. It lasted a long time,” he said.
The president also gave reporters a glimpse of what happened after dinner. “We even took a little tour of the ballroom. We took a — we went inside the ballroom with beams that are being put up over our heads. But it was a great dinner. It was a very informative dinner. Smart people. Stephen A. is great,” he said.
Trump had particular praise for Maher, who has frequently criticized him on his HBO program “Real Time.”
“Bill Maher, I tell you what, he likes me a lot more than people understand,” Trump said. “And I absolutely like him. It was a good dinner.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Maher for comment.
A Repeat Visit
This was not the first time Maher has sat down with Trump at the White House. He attended a similar dinner with Trump, Kid Rock and UFC CEO Dana White in April 2025. Afterward, Maher told his audience that his prior read on Trump’s temperament may have been off.
“You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured,” Maher said at the time. “And why 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, and I wasn’t high.”
That hasn’t stopped Maher from going after Trump’s policies since. In June, he mocked the administration’s Iran agreement after the White House touted it as a diplomatic win, saying, “We got everything we wanted except for everything we asked for.”
More recently, Maher forecast a “classic historical a–whooping” for Republicans in the midterms, telling his audience, “Trump screwed the pooch. That’s what happened. He got drunk with power.”
Reputational Stakes for Everyone at the Table
Jason Mudd, CEO of Axia Public Relations, told Fox News Digital that dinners like this cut both ways for the guests involved.
“Bill Maher and other comedians tend to win by joking first and clarifying later. He also has a model. It’s the same one he used in April 2025 on ‘Real Time’ after his first White House dinner with President Trump. He reported what he saw, and said it plainly. The moment a host sounds like a surrogate, he loses the credibility that makes him worth quoting,” Mudd said.
Mudd added that anyone accepting a high-profile invitation like this should think ahead about how they’ll handle the inevitable questions afterward. “A dinner this high-profile carries reputation risk and reward for each guest,” he said. “I advise anyone invited to a high-profile event to decide what they’ll say about it before, during and after, whether they accept the invitation or not.”
