Maher seemed amused more than anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause now it\u2019s our job,\u201d he told his audience, to figure out which things the president says are jokes and which are \u201cpart of his sometimes bats–t agenda.\u201d The comic added, with a shrug, that no one had informed him of that particular unspoken rule.<\/p>\n
![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3OVXXNATRZGOHBLHASUH4KM2MI.png\")
Bill Maher addressed Trump’s Valentine’s Day message on his show ‘Real Time with Bill Maher.’ Real Time with Bill Maher <\/p>\n
The back-and-forth comes after a controversial White House dinner between the pair last year that still appears to be fresh in 79-year-old Trump\u2019s head nearly a year later.<\/p>\n
In his Valentine\u2019s Day Truth Social post, Trump dismissed the March 2025 dinner as a \u201cwaste of time,\u201d while also fuming that Maher had taken one of his offhand remarks\u2014about China hypothetically scrapping hockey in Canada and eliminating the Stanley Cup\u2014too seriously.<\/p>\n
Maher still wasn\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n
![\"Trump\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/YNOUBC6B6ZDF3GG7UEDQW3MQAE.jpg\")
President Donald Trump issued a pointed message to Bill Maher after their White House dinner. Anadolu\/Anadolu via Getty Images <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to workshop that one for a while,\u201d he joked, suggesting the punchline didn\u2019t exactly land the way Trump might think it did.<\/p>\n
But the president didn\u2019t stop at critiquing Maher\u2019s sense of humor. In the same rant, Trump unleashed a string of familiar insults, branding the comedian a \u201cjerk\u201d with \u201clow ratings\u201d and even taking a swipe at his drinking habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he would be,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cHe was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a \u2018Vodka Tonic.\u2019 He said to me, \u2018I\u2019ve never felt like this before, I\u2019m actually scared.\u2019 In one respect, it was somewhat endearing!\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4Z45XX3HQFBIXMIV6OL4BVFKZI.png\")
Donald Trump rips into Bill Maher in a Valentine’s Day Truth Social post. Donald J. Trump\/Truth Social <\/p>\n
Maher leaned in, telling viewers the outburst likely stems from the fact that he has never let up in his criticism of Trump\u2014something he made clear he never promised to do in the first place. \u201cI never said I would,\u201d he noted bluntly.<\/p>\n
Comparing the situation to a bad date, Maher quipped, \u201cI know how women feel now\u2014a guy buys you dinner and then expects you to put out.\u201d He added, \u201cI\u2019m not that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comedian has continued to needle Trump in recent weeks, including during his Friday night episode, where he ripped the president\u2019s response to a Supreme Court ruling that found his use of sweeping global tariffs unlawful. Maher mocked Trump as \u201csuch a Karen\u201d over his reaction to the decision.<\/p>\n
![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CBAWBUT5H5BP5JF4ZFEBZRJNU4.png\")
Bill Maher says he will disprove the remainder of Trump’s claims at a later date. Real Time with Bill Maher\/HBO <\/p>\n
Maher isn\u2019t alone in drawing Trump\u2019s ire. In his Valentine\u2019s Day rant, Trump lumped Maher together with fellow late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel\u2014two more frequent targets of the president\u2019s attacks. Kimmel, in particular, has been in Trump\u2019s crosshairs lately, with the president even firing off an email on Thursday to supporters urging them to push back against the comedian.<\/p>\n
Still, Maher suggested the saga isn\u2019t quite over. He teased that he plans to address another dig from Trump\u2019s tirade\u2014that he suffers from so-called \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome\u201d\u2014in more detail on an upcoming show.<\/p>\n
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Maher is finally returning the president\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day message, and he\u2019s not sending flowers back. The Real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,50361,2490,134,427],"class_list":["post-497237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bill-maher","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}