Bill Maher is set to receive the 2026 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Trump-Kennedy Center, despite White House officials previously describing his selection as “fake news.”
“Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win,” the “Real Time” host said in a Thursday statement. “I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”
“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, further noted. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse — one politically incorrect joke at a time.”
The update comes a week after White House communications director Steven Cheung said that the “Real Time” host’s reported selection was “literally FAKE NEWS,” while press secretary Karoline Leavitt added: “This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award.”
Past recipients include Conan O’Brien, Tina Fey, Dave Chappelle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Letterman, Carol Burnett, Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Jon Stewart and Adam Sandler. The award will be presented on June 28, set to air on Netflix.
News of Maher’s honor also comes weeks after President Trump said his dinner with the HBO host was a “total waste of time.”
“Sometimes in life you waste time! T.V. Host Bill Maher asked to have dinner with me through one of his friends, also a friend of mine, and I agreed. He came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he would be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in February. “He was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a ‘Vodka Tonic.’ He said to me, ‘I’ve never felt like this before, I’m actually scared.’ In one respect, it was somewhat endearing!”
Naturally, Maher responded on “Real Time,” saying, “Someone has to help Donald Trump understand that I don’t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. He suffers from Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome.”
“I was having a good time. So were you, Don, because we were talking like real humans, not like that crazy act you put on in public,” he continued. “But I know that’s what you do. You are, if anything, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. And so you did here listing your accomplishments and how hurt you feel that people, including me, have not recognized them enough.”
