Donald Trump is once again taking shots at Bill Maher—days after the Real Time host alternately mocked the president and gave him some credit for the country’s falling crime rate.
“Bill Maher’s ratings are so low that it is hard to believe his show can continue,” Trump posted to Truth Social Monday morning. “Republicans should stop using him as a sounding board, however. It makes them look sooo weak and foolish!”
Trump didn’t say what prompted his latest Maher broadside, but it came three days after an episode of Real Time that gave him plenty to react to.
In his Friday monologue, Maher mocked Trump for showing Chinese President Xi Jinping various White House renovations, including a new driveway and helipad.
“Does he know that China builds, like, entire cities in a week?” Maher joked. “It’s like showing Gordon Ramsay how to reheat pizza.”
Maher also called the Trump administration “the most macho and the gayest administration ever” over its fixation on decorating, including Trump’s push for a new triumphal arch.
This is likely the portion of this week's 'Real Time with Bill Maher' that led to Trump's social media post about Maher's ratings this morning. pic.twitter.com/XYQmBUpFG9
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) September 28, 2026
But he wasn’t entirely critical. Later in the same episode, Maher argued that Trump’s hard-line posture deserves some credit for the nationwide decline in violent crime, saying it was “childish to pretend” that having a “no more Mr. Nice Guy” president hadn’t deterred at least some criminal behavior.
As for Trump’s ratings jab, Real Time’s linear audience on HBO is indeed considerably smaller than it was a decade ago, when the show averaged roughly 1.8 million viewers. But between its Friday HBO airing and Saturday-night replays on CNN, the show now typically draws more than 2 million linear viewers each week, not including HBO Max or YouTube.
Trump and Maher have been feuding for more than a decade, with Trump memorably filing a $5 million lawsuit against the host in 2013 after Maher challenged him to prove he was not descended from an orangutan. (Trump dropped the suit a month later.)
Their relationship briefly thawed after a March 2025 White House dinner arranged by Kid Rock, with Maher describing Trump as “gracious and measured.” After Maher criticized Trump on Real Time weeks later, Trump called the dinner a “total waste of time” and Maher a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT.”
The relationship took another turn this summer when Maher received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center. The president did not attend the event, but he did reportedly approve of Maher’s selection.
Trump seemed to signal his conflicted feelings about Maher in Monday’s post, noting after dinging his ratings, “It’s SAD because, in actuality, I like him.”
