Comedian Bill Maher returned to the White House for a second dinner with President Donald Trump and Kid Rock Oct. 15, this time joined by ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith.
The dinner came more than a year after Trump and Maher’s March 2025 meeting, for which the comedian received considerable blowback and the president later denounced as a “waste” of time in a Truth Social post. Their feud continued through June, when Maher received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, despite then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling reports he would be honored “fake news.”
For now, however, the president has described the meeting in positive terms. Trump told reporters Oct. 16 that the dinner
“was great” and he gave them a tour of the ballroom currently being constructed at the White House.
“Even though they have to put on a certain little facade for their people, they like Trump and I actually like them,” he said.
Maher, a frequent critic of both the president and the Democratic Party's far-left faction of his own party, announced he would be attending the dinner in an Oct. 12 episode of his podcast “Club Random with Bill Maher.” The comedian said the president texted him unexpectedly.
“He was really nice, like ‘I promise I won't say bad things about you like I did the last time,’” Maher said. “And I texted back and I said, ‘You know what? You're the president of the United States. Say whatever the fuck you want. I'm just glad we're talking.’”
Kid Rock, who organized the first dinner between Trump and Maher, said the night was “epic,” and that the four had tough conversations about policy.
“One thing we all wholeheartedly agreed on is that socialism and communism has no place to have a foothold in our government,” the musician told Fox News.
Smith gave a detailed, 36-minute breakdown of what he said was a visit lasting more than four hours in an episode of his YouTube show “Straight Shooter with Stephen A” on Oct. 16. The ESPN commentator said the president told Maher he could bring anyone he wanted. Maher invited Smith, who said he immediately accepted to have a chance to speak directly to the president.
The dinner amounted to a “substantive evening,” Smith said, during which he spoke to Trump about the war in Iran and issues harming the Black community, including cuts to federal jobs and his concerns that the administration’s anti-DEI push has discouraged corporate donations to historically Black colleges and universities.
He added that Maher and Trump “were going at it for hours on things they disagree” about.
“When I say that we were there for four hours, it was because of him,” Smith said. “He wouldn’t let us leave. And we were bringing up stuff, trying to pummel him with it, and he wouldn’t bend.”
Smith, likely wary of the blowback he might receive for meeting with Trump, defended his decision, saying it was important to take the opportunity discuss key issues with a president who would still wield tremendous power even if his party loses control of the U.S. House in November.
“What it amounts to, who knows? We shall see,” Smith said. “But it has to start somewhere. It may not always require being at the table, but it usually requires getting as close to the room as you can.”
Trump met with Maher last March, alongside Kid Rock and UFC CEO Dana White. Maher said he wished the public received the version of the president that attended the meal, instead of the persona Americans see on the national and world stage.
“It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian, it matters who he is on the world stage,” Maher said at the time.
Maher continued to cover, and at times make fun of, the president on his show. In February, Trump called the meeting a waste of time and called the comedian a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT.”
The two appeared to have made peace.
“It was a great dinner, it was a very informative dinner. Smart people. Stephen A. is great,” Trump told reporters Oct. 16. “Bill Maher, I tell you what, he likes me a lot more than people understand, and I actually like him.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump had 'great' dinner with Stephen A. Smith and Bill Maher
