Bill Maher wondered Friday night whether his monologue would land him back in Donald Trump’s doghouse. By Sunday, he had his answer.
Two days after Maher used Real Time to defend his second White House dinner with the president—while still making plenty of jokes at Trump’s expense—Trump responded with a 1,323-word Truth Social broadside calling Maher a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER,” a “major POTHEAD,” and a “coward,” before ultimately telling him: “Bill: Don’t call anymore.”
According to the operators of the Factbase database, it was Trump’s longest social media post ever, out of the 97,457 posts they’ve catalogued dating back to 2011. CNN noted that it was nearly twice as long as his previous record-holder, a 723-word post from May that began with complaints about the Kennedy Center’s plumbing and air conditioning before veering into attacks on a federal judge and his wife, the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling, and birthright citizenship.
The missive marks the latest collapse of the on-again, off-again détente between Trump and Maher, who dined together at the White House for the second time on Oct. 15 alongside Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock.
On Friday’s Real Time, Maher defended returning to the White House.
“I’m the bad guy because I go and say face-to-face to the man the things you write in articles that he’ll never read,” Maher said. “You know what? Fuck you. I like these dinners.”
Maher said the gathering lasted four hours and rattled off a lengthy list of subjects he said he challenged Trump on, including the Supreme Court, Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump’s treatment of Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the 2020 election.
“We should talk,” Maher said. “I’m glad that we talked.”
He also credited Trump with remaining composed throughout their disagreements.
“Trump never lost his temper. He never yelled. He never interrupted,” Maher said. “Me, I did.”
Trump’s Sunday account was considerably less charitable.
“I learned nothing,” he wrote, before adding, “it was a waste of time.”
Trump also disputed Maher’s account of the dinner’s length.
“It didn’t last four hours, it lasted two hours, maybe less,” he wrote. “We have the timestamps.”
That claim conflicts with Stephen A. Smith’s account. Appearing on CNN the night after the dinner, Smith said the group spent four hours and 20 minutes with Trump, including dinner, conversation, and a tour of the White House.
Trump spent much of Sunday’s post arguing that Maher is privately far more admiring of him than he lets on publicly. He claimed Maher had repeatedly sought meetings through mutual acquaintances, including producer Chuck LaBella and Kid Rock, and said Maher was eager to return after their first White House dinner.
Trump also accused Maher of being drunk during their latest meeting and criticized his marijuana use.
“Bill was drunk and had alcohol in his hand as he walked through the White House,” Trump wrote.
Much of Trump’s ire was directed at what happened after dinner.
Maher’s Friday monologue included jokes about Trump’s poll numbers, Republican candidates distancing themselves from him, and reports that the president was considering moving the White House press corps out of the briefing room.
Trump disputed Maher’s recounting of a repor that he planned to restore the swimming pool that once occupied the space.
“I am not building a swimming pool in the White House Briefing Room, and never had any intention of doing so,” Trump wrote, while confirming that he is considering moving the press elsewhere.
Trump also praised his former press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who sat for her first-ever late-night interview with Maher Friday.
“Karoline Leavitt was GREAT on the show,” Trump wrote, while complaining that she had to contend with “Lie after Lie.”
Leavitt had arrived on Real Time two nights earlier carrying a message from her former boss.
After his monologue, Maher asked her, “Am I back in the doghouse after that monologue?”
“That was a tough monologue,” Leavitt acknowledged. “But the president sends his regards.”
She said she had told Trump she was appearing on Maher’s show and that he instructed her to tell the host, “He loved that dinner, and he knows it”—an apparent reference to Maher himself enjoying his latest evening at the White House.
Trump’s Sunday post made much the same argument at considerably greater length.
“He’s gutless, because he enjoyed every minute,” Trump wrote of Maher, accusing him of reverting to his old ways once he was back on television.
The president also returned to another familiar complaint: the attention Maher receives from conservative media.
“I’m going to have the Republicans not cover you anymore,” Trump wrote.
It’s a complaint Trump has made before. In May, he blasted Fox News and “other Conservative Outlets” for repeatedly covering Maher, telling Fox to “stop putting this person on” and objecting to hearing commentators cite what “Bill Maher said.”
That came during one of several previous reversals in a relationship that has repeatedly ping-ponged between public insults and private cordiality.
After Kid Rock helped arrange their first White House dinner in 2025, Maher described Trump as “gracious and measured” in private. Trump later called that dinner a “total waste of time” after Maher returned to criticizing him on Real Time.
Then came another invitation, another dinner, and, for a little more than a week, another truce.
Trump ended Sunday’s post by declaring he would no longer watch Real Time, and telling Maher and LaBella to stop seeking another meeting.
“Bill: Don’t call anymore,” Trump wrote. “It’s useless.”
