Bill Maher reveals details of Trump dinner, says he was impressed by President: ‘Gracious and measured’

The comedian started out saying that the dinner was arranged by musician Kid Rock, a Trump-ally who is friends will Maher. He said the meeting was arranged because "we share a belief that there's gotta be something better than hurling insults at each other from 3,000 miles away."

He also slammed those on the left who thought that the meeting was something of a diplomatic meeting. "For all the people who treated this like it was some sort of summit meeting, you're ridiculous. Like I was gonna sign a treaty or something? I'm a f*cking comedian, I have no power! He's the most powerful leader in the world, I'm not the leader of anything," Maher said, adding that he may be the leader of "a contingent of centrist-minded people who believe there's got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute."

The night before the dinner, Trump posted on Truth Social, "I got a call from a very good guy, and friend of mine, Kid Rock, asking me whether or not it would be possible for me to meet, in the White House, with Bill Maher, a man who has been unjustifiably critical of anything, or anyone, TRUMP. I really didn’t like the idea much, and don’t like it much now, but thought it would be interesting. The problem is, no matter how much he likes your Favorite President, ME, he will publicly proclaim what a terrible guy I am, etc," however, Maher said that the president was not the person who "sh*t-tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this dinner was a bad idea."

Instead, Maher added, Trump is "much more self-aware than he lets on in public," and that when he was talking to Trump, the president said he used the word "lost" to describe what happened in the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden.

"Look, I get it. It doesn't matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian. It matters who he is on the world stage. I'm just taking as a positive that this person exists because everything, I've ever not liked about him was—I swear to God—absent, at least on this night," Maher added.

He said that while he was talking to Trump, the president did not interrupt him and that it was unlike many of the conversations he has had with other prominent people.

"Kid Rock, told me the night before, he said, 'If you want to get a word in edgewise, you can have to cut him off. He'll just go on,'—Not at all. I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don't look you in the eye, people who don't really listen because they just want to get to their next thing, people whose response to things you say just doesn't track .... None of that was him, and he mostly steered the conversation to "What do you think about this?" I know your mind is blown, so is mine," Maher added.

Maher also recalled giving Trump a few joking jabs during the dinner, and that Trump would not become angered at the host.

"The most surreal part of the whole night was when I got home, I flew back right after the dinner, and I'm in bed watching '60 Minutes' from the night before, and there's Trump in one of their stories, standing in a podium in a room that looked to me like one of the rooms and podium places we'd just been in, and he's ranting, 'Disgusting. You're a terrible person,' And I'm like, 'Who's that guy?'" Maher recalled.

He concluded his monologue for the dinner, saying that he was not going MAGA, then added, telling his audience, "That's my report. You can hate me for it, but I'm not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured. And why he isn't that in other settings, I don't know, and I can't answer, and it's not my place to answer. I'm just telling you what I saw, and I wasn't high."