Bill Maher appears to be on good terms with Trumpworld.
The 70-year-old HBO host joined Kid Rock and Stephen A. Smith as President Trump’s White House dinner guests earlier this month, and, following the dinner, Trump intimated to reporters that Maher’s criticisms of him on his late-night program are mostly bluster, and he “likes me a lot more than people understand.”
“Yeah, I did it again, bitches,” Maher said about his four-hour dinner with Trump during his opening monologue on “Real Time” Friday night, adding, “You know what? Fuck you. I like these dinners.”
Maher then managed to land Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s former press secretary who left the post in August, as an interview guest on his show “Real Time.” It’s a curious pairing given that Maher had previously attacked Leavitt on his program following the then-press secretary’s defense of Trump shouting, “Quiet, piggy!” to Bloomberg News reporter Catherine Lucey when she questioned him about Jeffrey Epstein aboard Air Force One. Leavitt spun the incident by claiming, “It’s actually admirable. It’s the president being frank, open, and honest. It’s actually good,’” prompting Maher to jokingly remark to Leavitt, “Well, in that case: Shut up, bitch.”
And so, Maher welcomed Leavitt to “Real Time” Friday night where he mostly treated her with kid gloves and poked fun at her successor, Katie Zacharia, for only lasting five days on the job.
“The president sends his regards,” Leavitt told Maher. “I told him I was coming on the show and he said, ‘Tell him he loved that dinner and he knows it.’”
“I do like it,” Maher admitted, before turning the talk back to Leavitt. “You were the youngest one to do this job… So what are you going to do now?”
Leavitt said she left the job to take care of her two young children, who are 2 and six months, and then said she’ll be starting as a Fox News pundit on Nov. 1. No follow-up from Maher about the Trump-Fox News pipeline, but instead a silly rejoinder about how Trump wants to turn the White House press pool into an actual swimming pool.
Cue Maher: “You know what? This is the one thing that people get mad at me [about]… I don’t give a shit about any of this. I like the ballroom! America does need a ballroom. It’s the United States of America.”
The softball questions and flattery didn’t stop there, as Maher asked Leavitt about her penchant for being “sarcastic” and didn’t ask any follow-up questions when she touted Trump’s war with Iran.
Maher delivered a litany of compliments about Trump, saying he “gets it” and, when Leavitt claimed Trump was “far more sane than the last [president]” who was “a mental patient,” Maher replied, “He’s far more energetic.”
It’s another reminder that Maher isn’t a journalist and refuses to challenge the conservative guests on his show. He’s just happy for them to be there.