Bill Maher’s White House dinner date with Donald Trump turned out exactly how the HBO host should have expected, says The View’s Ana Navarro
Maher dined with Trump a second time earlier this month, alongside sports commentator Stephen A. Smith and Trump’s bestie, Kid Rock. Maher said he “loved these dinners,” as he faced more blowback for schmoozing with the president, but Trump was adamant he didn’t feel the same about the “complete loser” in his longest Truth Social post to date.
Navarro said Maher should have known the meeting would blow up in his face. “Donald Trump is a lost cause, and he just proved it,” she said on the show.
“What he expects from having people over to the White House for a four-hour boozy dinner is that they’re going to leave there and use their giant platforms to kiss his a--. When that doesn’t happen, he doesn’t like it,” she added. “When you go and eat Donald Trump’s food and drink Donald Trump’s booze, expect that what he wants is for you to get out there and lie about Donald Trump.”
Added former Trump White House aide and co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, “I would not say yes to a social call at the White House. I would always say yes in two forms: in a journalist capacity, if you’re there and they say you can interview the president and nothing’s off limits, or in an advocacy capacity.”
Citing Kim Kardashian’s White House visit during Trump’s first term, Griffin added, “She ended up being instrumental in the First Step Act being passed, which was the most consequential criminal justice legislation in over a decade. So I’m like, if you can make a small benefit for good, I think you should do it.”
Trump later slammed Kardashian as “the world’s most overrated celebrity.”
Though the hosts never reached a consensus on whether public figures should socialize with Trump, they all agreed that his 1,321-word Truth Social post about Maher was over the top. “How much time does he have on his hands?” Griffin asked.
Sara Haines added, “He could try leading the country.”
Hostin joked that if Maher doesn’t fall in line and speak highly of Trump, “He’s never going to get a compliment about his a--” like Trump gave Ohio Senator Jon Husted.
Maher came under fire for his adulatory comments about Trump following his first White House visit, when he praised the “gracious and measured” president. As Maher continued to criticize Trump’s moves, however, the president turned on him once again. Maher insisted he was done getting hot and bothered about Trump, telling fans of his podcast, “If at this point, 10 years into the Trump situation, you are still obsessing about his personality, my view is that’s on you.”
Still, Maher jumped at the chance to meet with him again, Trump said in his long-winded rant. The host defended the dinner on his Real Time show. “Yeah, I did it again, b---hes. I know. I’m the bad guy because I go and say face to face to the man the things you write in articles that he’ll never read, but OK.”
