Bill Maher reveals Trump was 'gracious and measured' at White House meeting, says he's not the man seen on TV
"Real Time" host Bill Maher revealed details Friday of his meeting last week with President Donald Trump at the White House, saying Trump was more gracious and good-humored than he expected.
"You can hate me for it, but I'm not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured," Maher said. "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."
Maher mocked those who treated the White House visit like it was "some kind of summit" brokered by their mutual friend Kid Rock, calling them "ridiculous."
"I have no power. I'm a f---ing comedian, and he's the most powerful leader in the world!" Maher exclaimed. "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."
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Maher shared a printout of the insults Trump had leveled at him over the years, which Trump signed with "good humor."
"And I know as I say that, millions of liberal sphincters just tightened. ‘Oh, my God, Bill, you gonna say something nice about him?’ What I'm gonna do is report exactly what happened," Maher said, adding he "didn't go MAGA. And to the president's credit, there was no pressure to."
The HBO host expressed his surprise about how Trump laughs, something he said he had never seen him do in public, telling his audience, "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," Maher said.
Maher credited Trump for being "much more self-aware than he lets on in public," revealing the subject of the 2020 election came up during his tour of the White House and that he "didn't get mad" how Maher brought up Trump's rare admission that he had lost.
"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. Because everything I've ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent at least on this night with this guy," Maher said.
"I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don't look you in the eye, people don't really listen because they just want to get to their next thing… 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."
Maher said there were several moments where he cracked a joke at Trump's expense or contradicted him on various topics, but it was "no problem" between the two of them.
"I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him," he told his audience. "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 recalled the "most surreal" part of the entire experience was when he returned home to watch "60 Minutes" and saw a clip of Trump from a podium "ranting" and shouting insults.
"And I'm like, 'Who's that guy? What happened to Glinda the Good Witch?'" Maher quipped. "'And why can't we get the guy I met to the public guy?' And I'm not saying it's our responsibility to do that. It's not. I'm just reporting exactly what I saw over two-and-a-half hours. I went into the mine, and that's what's down there."
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"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, and I have no illusions now that I'm back to work at my job, that he might start a new list," Maher said, holding up the printout of Trump's insults to him. "Because I don't have a good feeling and will be critical about a lot of what he's doing- the trade war and disappearing people, ruling by decree, threatening judges, gutting the government with glee."
"But I also think he now understands I have a job to do, or at least he did on this night, because he said to me early on that he'd seen our last episode, which was the Friday before this dinner, and he said, 'I thought maybe you'd be nice, but you hit me really hard.' I did because I'm not going to pull my punches that presidents get to propose a third term for themselves. He understood that, and without animus, that doesn't mean he's not going to try to do it," he continued.
Maher said he walked away with nothing from the White House except "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."
He went on to share his favorite moment was when they both said they heard from a lot of people who liked how they were having dinner together, and how they agreed they didn't like those who didn't want them to meet.
"Don't talk, as opposed to what? Writing the same editorial for the millionth time and making 25-hour speeches into the wind. Really, that's what liberals have? He takes the piss out of everybody else, and we can hold ours?" Maher continued, taking a swipe at the recent marathon Senate floor speech made by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.