Comedian Bill Maher has been cornered on his contentious relationship with Donald Trump while accepting an award that the president’s administration insisted he was not getting.
Maher, 71, on Sunday received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, the prestigious venue that Trump tried to rename in his own honor, and whose facade has now been stripped of any association with Trump.
The comedian has used his HBO show Real Time to praise and criticize the president. After a visit to the White House last year for a dinner brokered by their mutual friend Kid Rock, Maher said Trump was “gracious and measured,” and not like the “person who plays a crazy person on TV.”
Maher added of their two-hour dinner, “Honestly, I voted for [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump.”
However, he has also compared Trump, 80, to a “redneck” emperor after his UFC birthday bash, compared his TV ratings to the president’s sinking approval ratings, and said Trump has done “things that are racist, misogynistic, anti-democratic and corrupt.”
Trump, in return, has also routinely bashed Maher on Truth Social, referring to his low ratings, calling him “a weak and ineffective person” as well as a “moron” and “pathetic.” In a lengthy rant in February, he called Maher a “lightweight” and “ANTI TRUMP,” he said it was “a total waste of time for me to have this jerk at the White House.”
After news that Maher was receiving the prestigious award broke in March, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award,” while Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung claimed it was “Literally FAKE NEWS.”
Maher was interviewed by CNN on the red carpet to Sunday’s event, and said he was not surprised by the Trump administration’s earlier reaction to his award.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again before the show starts,” Maher told correspondent Camila DeChalus. “Anything could happen.”
Maher also corrected DeChalus when she raised a story that Trump administration officials had printed out some of the president’s insults about the comic.
“I did that,” Maher said proudly. “I printed them, and I brought it; he signed it.”
Maher said he took to the White House dinner a printed list of nearly 60 insults Trump had made about him over the years, including, “lowlife dummy,” “sleaze bag,” and “stone cold crazy.”
“I brought this to the White House because I wanted him to sign it, which he did with good humor,” Maher said on Real Time last year. “I know as I say that millions of liberal sphincters just tightened.”
When asked on Sunday about Trump’s recent Truth Social posts about him, Maher said, “The last 4 or 5 times… it‘s all it‘s all back to yelling and screaming. I‘m terrible. I‘m a lunatic liberal. I‘m a lunatic. I‘m a lightweight. I‘m a jerk. So we‘re back to that. It‘s OK.”
Maher added, “I would rather be still talking than the politics of, `You don‘t even exist. You‘re too deplorable even to acknowledge.’ I‘d rather be fighting and yelling… that‘s just his way of talking to people. You know, you just have to accept it. I‘d rather the channels be open, anything is better than channels just being shut off.”
He then joked to DeChalus that the secret for comedians to appeal to both sides of the political divide is “to be a cool guy that people want to hang out with. I am. Some people aren‘t.”
During Sunday’s ceremony, Trump was also mocked by Woody Harrelson, The New York Times reported.
“Finally, an award for my dear friend—ironically at the Trump Kennedy Center,” Harrelson said, before noting, “Oh right, we fixed that, not as though you’d be able to notice.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Kennedy Center for comment.
Tarps have covered the outside of the Kennedy Center since Trump’s name was removed on June 13.
During Sunday’s event, comedian Whitney Cummings made a joke about Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
“I actually heard Trump may come tonight, but he couldn’t make it,” Cummings said, according to Deadline. “He got caught in sex traffic.”
Trump has always denied any wrongdoing regarding his friendship with the late child sex offender.
Members of Trump’s administration who attended Sunday’s event included Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.
