Bill Maher shared he stopped taking cheap shots at President Donald Trump after they had a heated in-person meeting at the White House earlier this year.
The comedian opened up about his one-on-one with the president during Monday’s episode of “Club Random With Bill Maher,” where Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, appeared as a guest.
As Maher detailed to the Republican National Committee co-chair, he eased off certain digs against the president after the latter exploded at him for making orangutang comparisons.
“I’ll tell you this, I’ve never said this publicly, but it’s true,” Maher recalled. “We went into the little merch room after the Oval Office. And he started yelling at me about the bit I did many years ago about the orangutang.”
Per Maher, he refused to apologize for the bit, defending “it was a satire in response to [Trump] demanding [Barack] Obama’s birth certificate,” which he said was “wrong and racist and not cool.”
He continued: “You know, he absolutely accepted that and then I said … ‘But you know what, I will also admit … have I taken some cheap shots? I have. And that’s not necessary.’”
Since that meeting, Maher noted there have been “no jokes about his weight, no jokes about his hair, his makeup,” etc. Maher made it clear that digs about First Lady Melania Trump were off the table, too.
“I have enough on my plate with the policy,” he explained. “I don’t have to go there. So, I thought like, you know, this is how people bridge. You make a little thing here, I make a little move this way. It doesn’t hurt me, it doesn’t hurt you. And I like it better. I like sticking to this.”
Maher shared that his writers recently pitched a joke about the president’s hand, but he said that he shut the bit down. “I’m 70. That could be my hand tomorrow,” Maher stated. “So I’m not making fun of physical deformities and that stuff.”
Despite Maher’s new no “cheap shots” policy, he defended that he still does his job, which includes “calling [Trump] out.” He shared he’s gotten quite a bit of flak from the left over his visit with Trump, confessing “the people who hate me for it never let me forget it.”
Watch Maher’s full “Club Random” episode above.
