Bill Maher says a conversation with Donald Trump quickly turned into a disagreement over the 2020 election. During a White House dinner, the comedian challenged the president’s claim that he had won the popular vote three times.
Bill Maher says he challenged Trump’s popular vote claims
Bill Maher recalled the encounter during an episode of his Club Random podcast, where he spoke with Breaking Bad actor Dean Norris. He said Trump repeated his claim of winning the popular vote three times during their latest dinner, which also included Kid Rock and sports commentator Stephen A. Smith. Maher corrected him, saying he had “won it once.” He added that Trump did not get angry over the correction.
The comedian had raised the 2020 election with Trump during an earlier White House dinner, too. Maher tried to frame Trump’s defeat as the “best thing ever,” comparing it to the middle act of a superhero movie. The hero, he explained, needs to “fall in the second reel so that he can rise again.”
Despite those conversations, Trump later blasted Maher on Truth Social. The president called him a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER” and published a 1,323-word attack that also labeled the comedian a “major POTHEAD.” Maher said he no longer felt threatened by Trump, whom he described as a “lame-duck president” (via The Daily Beast).
After roughly seven hours of face time with Trump at the White House, Maher described moments when Trump appears perfectly grounded, only to suddenly veer into behavior that appears disconnected from reality. As per him, Trump has “a reasonable grasp of reality and then it sort of… he loses it.”
Maher compared the bizarre mood swings to treating someone like a sworn enemy one minute, then turning around and asking them to “pass the peas.” He also made clear that he does not think Trump is faking these shifts. “I don’t think it’s an act. I don’t think he ever acts. I mean, that’s the thing. He doesn’t really, for better or worse,” Maher said. “He just doesn’t hide anything.”
