Bill Maher may be back in Donald Trump’s doghouse, but it seems at least two prominent figures in the president’s orbit are still perfectly willing to sit across from him.
Ted Cruz will join Maher for Friday’s one-on-one interview on Real Time, while Kid Rock is set to take a seat at the desk alongside Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei for the night’s panel.
The bookings come just days after Trump unleashed a record-length social media attack on Maher, raising the obvious question of how the HBO host will respond Friday night.
Kid Rock’s appearance is particularly notable given his role in Maher and Trump’s unlikely, on-again, off-again relationship.
The musician, a friend of both men, helped broker Maher’s first White House dinner with Trump in 2025 and joined them for both that meal and their second dinner earlier this month. Stephen A. Smith rounded out the group at the more recent gathering.
That second dinner appeared to produce another brief thaw between Maher and Trump—but Maher’s return to Real Time last Friday quickly put it to the test.
Maher defended his decision to meet with the president, telling critics, “F*ck you. I like these dinners,” and praised Trump for remaining composed during their disagreements.
But dinner hadn’t bought Trump immunity from Maher’s monologue. The host also delivered several cutting jokes at the president’s expense, including one invoking Trump’s association with Jeffrey Epstein.
“We kid,” Maher added after the joke, employing a familiar disclaimer he has often used after particularly pointed Trump material.
Trump apparently wasn’t laughing. On Sunday, he responded with a 1,323-word Truth Social post—the longest social media post of his career—calling Maher a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER,” a “coward,” and a “major POTHEAD.”
Trump declared their latest dinner a “waste of time,” accused Maher of enjoying the evening more than he let on afterward, and ended with: “Bill: Don’t call anymore. It’s useless.”
And now Kid Rock—the man who helped get Maher into the White House in the first place—is headed back to Maher’s desk.
It won’t be his first visit. He sat down with Maher on the show in February 2025, shortly before helping arrange Maher’s first White House dinner.
Cruz, meanwhile, arrives on Real Time as one of Trump’s prominent allies in the Senate, just days after receiving praise from the president.
At a rally in Lubbock, Texas, Tuesday night, Trump revived his recurring suggestion that Cruz would make a good Supreme Court justice, calling him a “brilliant guy” and a “brilliant lawyer.”
Cruz has previously said Trump has seriously discussed Supreme Court vacancies with him, but that he has repeatedly declined because he prefers remaining in the political arena.
Cruz is also no stranger to Maher’s show. He previously appeared on Real Time in November 2023.
Still, the timing of Friday’s booking is hard to miss: five days after Trump told Maher to stop calling—and after again complaining about conservatives giving the HBO host attention—Maher will spend his next show talking to two men firmly inside Trump’s political and personal orbit.
Whether Trump will be watching is another question.
“I never watched your show much,” he told Maher Sunday, “but I will never watch it again.”
Bunghole Bill Maher is only making things worse for Bunghole Bill Maher!