The post referenced a \u201cNew Rules\u201d monologue Maher gave in his Friday episode, where he argued that State of the Union addresses should be canceled altogether. <\/p>\n
\u201cNeither party anymore can even clap for the other one, no matter how benign the statement,\u201c Maher said<\/a>. He showed a 2023 clip of Republicans refusing to clap after Biden condemned political violence, noting, \u201dThey\u2019re politicians and they can\u2019t even give it up for \u2018shooting us is bad.\u2019”<\/p>\n Maher drew immediate criticism on X for his post, in part due to his history of what viewers have seen as the comedian sucking up to the president.<\/p>\n In April 2025, Maher visited the White House to have dinner<\/a> with Trump. Afterward, Maher praised Trump as \u201cgracious and measured,\u201d and argued that the president\u2019s in-person demeanor varied greatly from his public one:<\/p>\n \u201cA crazy person doesn\u2019t live in the White House,\u201d Maher said. \u201cA person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f—ed up. It\u2019s just not as f—ed up as I thought it was.\u201d<\/p>\n Maher was criticized widely for both his glowing description of the meeting and his decision to attend it in the first place. Shortly afterward, comedian Larry David wrote a satirical piece<\/a> for The New York Times comparing Maher\u2019s dinner with Trump to a fictional 1939 radio host dining with Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n Maher\u2019s Tuesday night post comes just days after the president launched a Valentine\u2019s Day Truth Social attack<\/a> on the late-night host. Trump called their meal a \u201ctotal waste of time,\u201d and described the comedian as having been \u201cextremely nervous\u201d and displaying \u201cZERO confidence in himself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBill Maher is a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT, and Republicans should stop using him to show how the Left is coming over our way,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cOur Base, the Greatest of All Time, laughs at your weakness when you do it!\u201d<\/p>\n Maher responded<\/a> to Trump\u2019s post in his following Real Time monologue. He claimed Trump was angry that Maher wouldn\u2019t stop criticizing him just because of one nice dinner. <\/p>\n \u201cI know how women feel now\u2014a guy buys you dinner and then expects you to put out,” Maher said, adding, \u201cI\u2019m not that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Less than 40 minutes after Maher\u2019s post complaining about Democrats not clapping for Trump, he posted<\/a> what seemed to be a criticism of… everyone. <\/p>\n \u201cThe maturity level of this country is\u2026 what\u2019s below one?\u201d Maher wrote. It\u2019s not clear which moment in Trump\u2019s SOTU address Maher was reacting to\u2014or if he was even reacting to the 107-minute speech at all. <\/p>\n Obsessed with pop culture and entertainment? Follow us on Substack<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> for even more coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Maher seemed to be trying to regain President Donald Trump\u2019s favor by taking shots at Democrats. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[10161,14299,1072,88,13726,224583,1505,51677,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-489176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bill-maher","9":"tag-democratic-party","10":"tag-donald-j-trump","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-late-night","13":"tag-sotu","14":"tag-television","15":"tag-trumpland","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NPSHVRVBXZEAJNYY2P5VKYY5EI.jpg\")
Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday. MANDEL NGAN\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3U7LTJ26FNBTZMMLAQYL7LM76Y.jpg\")
Trump points as he delivers the State of the Union address on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI \/ AFP via Getty Images) BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI\/Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n