Bill Maher details Trump texts as feud escalates after White House dinner
Friday at 9: 20 a. m. ET, bill maher used his return episode of his Friday show to respond at length to President Donald Trump’s Valentine’s Day criticism, describing what Trump posted about him on Truth Social last month and recounting texts that followed their White House dinner. The timing matters because Maher framed his response as a direct answer to the president’s recent public attacks and a fresh round of posts that hit Friday morning.
Bill Maher responds on his Friday show after Trump’s Valentine’s Day post
On the episode, bill maher said Trump’s criticism included claims about the dinner that Maher argued were false. Maher said he woke up “three weeks ago” to statements Trump wrote on Truth Social that “somehow were not true, ” then singled out Valentine’s Day as the moment that “hurt” and pushed him to “set the record straight. ”
Maher also said he had promised to address the presidential attack when he returned from a week-long hiatus, and he did so in the episode described as his return show.
Donald Trump’s Truth Social digs and Bill Maher’s dinner timeline
Maher said he did not ask for the dinner and that a “mutual friend” arranged it. He said the claim that he was nervous and scared was wrong, and he disputed the idea that the dinner was quick. Maher said he was there almost three hours and described what he drank, clarifying it was a margarita, not vodka.
Maher described the dinner conversation as unusually human compared with Trump’s public persona, saying they were “talking like real humans” rather than the “crazy act” he said Trump puts on in public. Maher added that Trump spent time listing accomplishments and expressing hurt that people, including Maher, had not recognized them enough.
In the same segment, Maher said Trump continued the fight publicly, including a Valentine’s Day Truth Social post described as a “bizarre essay” about him. Maher also said Trump posted again Friday morning, with Maher characterizing it as a barrage of posts.
Texts after the White House meeting and the “Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome” line
Maher said Trump texted him soon after the dinner, complaining that Maher was still part of the “lunatic left” and adding that Trump “should have won a Nobel Prize for ending wars. ” Maher said he texted back, “Yeah, and I should have won 20 Emmys. ”
Maher said Trump’s message also included calling him “part of the lunatic left, ” and Maher described arguing “for a while” before saying Trump told him to never change. Maher used the exchange to argue that the president, not Maher, is the one fixated on the feud, saying Trump suffers from “Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome, ” not the other way around.
Maher said he doesn’t have “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and tried to demonstrate that by pointing to times he has supported Trump’s positions, including on policies involving Israel, NATO, and marijuana. He said he never threw Trump “under the bus, ” and he argued that he can admit when he’s wrong and be honest in his critiques.
Even while describing the dinner as a moment where he saw a more normal side of Trump, Maher said he is “back to name calling” now and suggested he would return fire with new insults. Still, Maher said he would not consider the dinner “a waste of time” as long as he believes there is “even a spark of a possibility” of bringing out what he described as the more normal person he encountered at the meal.
Maher also aimed his criticism at the Trump administration, citing concerns including ICE arrests, siding with autocratic rulers against Democratic allies, and personal enrichment involving Trump and his family. He said Trump makes “people crazy” and accused the president of doing “things that are racist, misogynistic, anti-democratic and corrupt. ”
The next confirmed milestone in the back-and-forth is Trump’s ongoing social media posting, with Maher pointing to the latest Friday morning barrage; further responses could follow on Maher’s next Friday episode, if he chooses to answer any new Truth Social attacks by airtime.
