Trump Sends Bill Maher 1,300 Words: Two-Hour Dinner, Not Four, and 'Don't Call Anymore'

President Trump spent Sunday evening writing Bill Maher a breakup letter. It ran about 1,300 words on Truth Social, opened with "Let's talk about this COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER, Bill Maher," and closed with four words for the HBO host: "Bill: Don't call anymore."

The trigger was Friday's Real Time, where Maher told his audience about his second private dinner with Trump at the White House, then went after the president on Russia, the midterms and more. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was his interview guest. Trump's post answers Maher almost line by line, and it shuts the door on the most talked-about crossover friendship in politics eight days before the Nov. 3 election.

What Maher said Friday

Maher opened the show bragging that he "did it again" and went back for dinner. His best line was on himself: "There is just something thrilling about being announced when you're in the White House," he said, until "you hear the aide say, sir, your 7 o'clock low-ratings dummy is here." Then came the number Trump would go after:

He said he brought a long list of complaints to the table, from the Supreme Court and Starlink to the Afghans who helped U.S. troops, plus "Hegseth is dragging you down, sir." But in the same monologue Maher handed the host the manners award, and himself the opposite:

Later, Maher pressed Leavitt on whether Trump will be a vengeful "lame duck" if the midterms go badly. She didn't take the bait. "The president does have a way of defying history," Leavitt said, telling Maher to "wait and see before jumping to conclusions on the midterms" and pointing to Trump's work with Washington's Democratic mayor on crime and homelessness (Real Time on YouTube).

Trump's answer, point by point

Four hours or two. Maher's "four hours" got a flat correction: "It didn't last four hours, it lasted two hours, maybe less, and everybody was happy. We have the timestamps." Trump called the evening "a good meeting" but added, "I learned nothing, and felt it was a waste of time."

Who asked whom. Trump says the dinners were Maher's idea, pushed by Maher's friend and business associate Chuck LaBella, who Trump says started as a "gofer" on The Apprentice, and by Kid Rock. His first reaction, he wrote: "Fellas, this guy's a Goofball." After the first dinner, he says, LaBella called "multiple times" asking for a second. Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock came along to that one.

The behavior. Trump wrote that Maher "was drunk and had alcohol in his hand as he walked through the White House," called him a "major POTHEAD" who should quit for his health, and said that at the first dinner he looked "as though somebody had just beaten him up — But it wasn't me!" Maher, for his part, had already told HBO viewers that if anyone lacked etiquette at the table, it was him.

The laugh track. Trump repeatedly asked what "Laughter Machine" Real Time uses, since "people can't think he's funny," and told Maher to "turn your Laugh Machine off."

The issues. Trump hit Maher for doubting that it was "a good thing to take the Nuclear Weapon away from Iran," repeated his Saturday denial that he's turning the press briefing room back into a swimming pool, and said Maher "lied about all of the Illegal Voters" in California. He praised his own press secretary: "Karoline Leavitt was GREAT on the show."

Checking the numbers Trump cited

Trump leaned on CNN's own polling to answer Maher's claim that even Republicans have soured on him. One of the figures he cited checks out exactly. In a CNN poll conducted by SSRS from May 7 to 31, 2026, Republicans were asked which American president they admire most. Trump got 53%, Ronald Reagan 18% and Abraham Lincoln 8% (CNN/SSRS poll document).

On California, the number Trump used is the federal government's. Homeland Security investigators flagged more than 20,000 registered California voters who were mailed ballots as likely noncitizens, and the Justice Department is in court trying to have those ballots set aside until citizenship is checked. We covered the latest round, where the state's own lawyer told the Ninth Circuit he "honestly" didn't know how California verifies citizenship, here. Trump's warning that the total "could easily go to over 1,000,000" is his projection, not a federal count.

The swimming pool line is old news Trump is still swatting. On Saturday morning he posted that the report was "Fake News" and that "the old swimming pool will never be brought back," though he "may move the Fake News to a less obnoxious location." He said the same Sunday night: the press may move, the pool isn't coming back.

Why it matters

Since spring 2025, Maher has been the liberal who would sit down with Trump and report back honestly, and that made him useful to both sides. Picture a referee who keeps visiting one team's locker room and then calling the game against them on TV. Trump's post says that arrangement is over. He even said he'll ask Republicans to stop treating Maher "as a guy who is transformative."

It also shows the Trump playbook in the final week: no insult goes unanswered, and the answer comes with numbers. As of early Monday, Maher had not replied on X. If Real Time airs Friday as usual, that show lands four days before the election.