Bill Maher’s Dinner Was at the Center of a New “Real Time”

The format of this week’s Real Time With Bill Maher was a little different from the status quo. Once his opening monologue was over, Maher delivered another talk — in lieu, it turns out, of the editorial segment that usually closes out Real Time episodes. The reason for that was understandable: you see, Maher had recently dined at the White House at the invitation of Kid Rock.

Yes, that was a strange sentence to type.

Maher sitting down to meet with the president was unexpected for many reasons; beyond his criticisms of the Trump presidency, Maher was also sued by Donald Trump years before he ran for office. From Maher’s account of the dinner, he offered the impression of a version of Trump who is less abrasive than his public persona. “He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” Maher said — and produced a list of all of the insults Trump had directed at Maher over the years that Trump had signed for him.

That said, Maher also pointed to the contradiction between Trump’s private and public personas. Watching Trump on the news the day after the dinner, Maher recalled thinking, “What happened to Glinda the Good Witch?”

He also argued that Trump’s behavior at private events doesn’t matter all that much. “It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian,” Maher said. “It matters who he is on the world stage.”

Maher remained critical of the president’s policies elsewhere in the episode, calling out “Trump cultists” in his monologue and handing a copy of the Constitution to guest Steve Bannon to remind him of the existence of the 22nd amendment. Maher’s White House visit also came up in their conversation, with Bannon telling Maher, “One good night at the White House shouldn’t make you soft, Bill.”

“You’re the one who just got out of prison,” Maher replied.

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For this episdoe’s panel, Piers Morgan and Chaos Under Heaven author Josh Rogin joined Maher on stage. There was some tension early on between Maher and Rogin, which eventually abated as the two men grew more aligned as the discussion continued. Maher and Rogin agreed that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — and the attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil — were both wrong. Morgan was more terse, at one point snapping to Rogin that “you can educate me when I finish.”

It wasn’t a conventional episode of Real Time, but it didn’t lack for things to talk about — and one suspects Maher’s White House dinner will come up again in subsequent weeks.

Other notable moments from this week’s episode:

Maher, during the early minutes of the panel discussion: “This is boring! Like I said tariffs are.”
Rogin on various Trump policies: “You think it’s 4-D Chess? It’s Hungry Hungry Hippos.”
Maher on the guy with seven emotional support tigers: “What kind of problems do you have that six tigers couldn’t fix?”