Bill Maher Praises Trump After Attending Private Dinner Organized by Kid Rock

Bill Maher has praised Donald Trump after having a private dinner with him last month.

Yes, even though Maher has spent years railing against Trump on his HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, the comedian has softened his view of the president after attending the White House on March 31st for a dinner organized by longtime MAGA-supporter, Kid Rock.

As Maher recounted during Friday’s monologue of Real Time, Trump was “gracious,” and “much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” making jokes, asking for others’ thoughts, and not taking offense to dissenting opinions. “Just for starters: he laughs,” Maher said. “I’ve never seen him laugh in public. But he does, including at himself. He’s not fake.”

Continuing, Maher claimed Trump even used the word “lost” to describe the outcome to his 2020 bid for the presidency. “I said, ‘Wow, I never thought I’d hear you say that,’” Maher recalled. “He didn’t get mad.”

Maher then praised some of Trump’s controversial policies, like reigning in DEI (which Maher agreed had “gone too far”), his action against trans athletes, his immigration policy, his support for Israel, and more. Though Maher clarified he still had disagreements with the president, he declared: “A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is fucked up. It’s just not as fucked up as I thought it was.”

Maher was evidently so impressed by the hospitality that, when he got home and watched clips of Trump in a press conference, he found himself wondering: “Who’s that guy? What happened to Glinda the Good Witch?”

Granted, Maher did at least acknowledge that Trump’s tolerable private persona is no excuse for his public persona and actions. “Look, I get it — it doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian, it matters who he is on the world stage,” he said, before one last sprinkle of self-indulgence. “I’m just taking it as a positive that this person exists. Because everything I’ve ever not liked about him was — I swear to God — absent, at least on this night with this guy.”

Watch the full monologue from Maher below.

In other Maher news, Al Pacino was evidently dumped by his 30-year-old baby mama for the comedian last fall.