Bill Maher sends shockwaves with revelation of secret texts with Trump

Late night talk show host Bill Maher argued that President Donald Trump suffers from “Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome” after repeatedly attacking him on social media.

“Someone has to help Donald Trump understand that I don’t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, he suffers from Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome,” Maher said on Friday night. He then added that — contrary to Trump claiming his famous-dinner with Maher was quick and Maher was anxious — in fact the dinner was lengthy and he drank casually.

“I wasn’t nervous and scared, and the dinner wasn’t quick,” Maher said. “I was there almost three hours, and it wasn’t vodka, it was a margarita. I didn’t ask for it right away. I had a drink before dinner, and then a couple more during. I was having a good time.”

He added, “So were you, Don, because we were talking like real humans, not like that crazy act you put on in public.”

Maher went on to recall how, after their dinner, Trump texted Maher that the president should have won a Nobel Peace Prize, to which Maher replied “Yeah, and I should have 120 Emmys.” After arguing for a while, Trump closed by saying “Bill, you know what, don’t change. I wouldn’t know what to do with you if you did.” Maher said that he appreciated the gesture and hopes Trump will keep the line of conversation open.

Although Trump and Maher reportedly had a pleasant dinner when they met in 2025, Trump has since publicly denounced Maher as a “jerk,” as “no different than Kimmel and Colbert” (referring to Maher’s fellow late night talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert), as “extremely nervous” with “ZERO confidence in himself” and that their dinner was “a total waste of time.” From the left, Maher was criticized for even attending the Trump dinner in the first place.

"Imagine my surprise when, in the spring of 1939, a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world's most reviled man, Adolf Hitler," comedian Larry David wrote in The New York Times after the Maher dinner. "I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. 'He's Hitler. He's a monster.' But eventually, I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn't change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity."

David continued, "Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room…. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room. He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back."

Recently, Maher alluded to his personal feelings about the Trump era when he hosted New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who expressed views on social media with which Maher ultimately agreed.

We aren't divided; we are being divided by companies for profit,” Friedman said. “And we have our divisions; we always have. But what is new in my life: it is now a giant industry to make people stupid and angry.”

Friedman later continued, "We're going through a lot of social change. We're going through a lot of technological change. The pot would be boiling. But then, along came (Facebook CEO) Mark Zuckerberg and turned the heat up on the pot. And then, along came Trump and took the lid off the pot, and he made it permissible, popular and profitable to say and do things about each other we never did before."