Bill Maher getting Kennedy Center award — after Trump officials claimed he wouldn’t

After journalists Jonathan L. Fischer and Ashley Parker reported, in a March 20 article for The Atlantic, that political comedian and "Real Time" host Bill Maher would be receiving the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain prize for humor, Trump administration officials were quick to claim their reporting was "fake news." But now, according to Politico's Daniel Lippman, the Kennedy Center is confirming their reporting as totally accurate.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in response to Fischer and Parker's article, claimed, "This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award." And White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, in a post on X, attacked their reporting as "literally FAKE NEWS."

But Lippman, in an article published by Politico early Thursday morning, March 26, reports, "Maher, a frequent Trump critic but also known as a heterodox comedian, will receive the prize in June in a show broadcast by Netflix in one of the Kennedy Center's last public events before it shuts down for a two-year renovation. The Kennedy Center is expected to announce that Maher is getting the award later Thursday morning, said a person with knowledge of the award discussions who was granted anonymity to speak about the private process that led to the selection."

The Kennedy Center source told Politico, "Anonymous sources with half-baked information leaked to The Atlantic before conversations were finalized. There was nothing to confirm at the time, and it is not appropriate to get ahead of any settled agreement between multiple parties involved."

Lippman, in a March 26 post on X, wrote, "SCOOP: The White House said it was 'fake news' after The Atlantic reported Bill Maher would receive the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain humor prize. But the Kennedy Center is expected to announce later today that Maher is getting the award after all (!)."

According to Lippman, Maher had an "embargoed statement" on receiving the Twain award and commented, "Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently, it's like an Emmy, except I win…. I'd just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who's been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain."

Although he often rails against "wokeness" and "political correctness" on the left, Maher isn't shy about criticizing Trump — who invited him to have dinner at the White House in 2025 but, in February 2026, attacked the "Real Time" host as a "highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT" on his Truth Social platform and said it "was a total waste of time for me to have this jerk at the White House." Maher, in response, commented that Trump "suffers from Bill Maher derangement syndrome."