Bill Maher fact-checked Donald Trump over his recent comments about their much-ballyhooed dinner, setting the record straight after the president accused the “Real Time” host of being “nervous and scared” at the informal White House meeting.
Maher got into it Friday night on his HBO show, saying he woke up last Saturday morning to find the dinner – which took place in April, and for which Maher took a lot of heat – back in the headlines.
“[Trump] was very mad at me because I didn’t get his joke about how China is gonna make Canada give up hockey,” Maher said. “You know, I think we’re going to have to workshop that one for a while. So he went off on me and said, you know, the dinner we had was a waste of time. Well, I didn’t think it was.”
Trump’s Truth Social post on Valentine’s Day morning painted Maher as being “extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a ‘Vodka Tonic.’” He also called Maher “a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT … Bill continues to suffer from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS!), and there is nothing that will ever be done to cure him of this very serious disease.”
Maher said Friday that Trump turned on him “because I never stopped criticizing him. I never said I would. And I know how women feel now. A guy buys you dinner and then expects you to put out. OK? I’m not that guy.”
Maher said he planned on responding in full to Trump’s rant in an upcoming episode of “Real Time,” which is back March 6 after a one-week hiatus.
“I’m going to address this at the end,” Maher said. “His whole long screed. Yes, and prove that I don’t have Trump derangement syndrome.”
There was another detail that Maher felt the need to correct: “That, you know, I immediately asked for a drink. He immediately wanted a vodka. OK, it was a margarita. It was not a vodka, and it wasn’t immediately. I had a drink before dinner, as people do.”
As for being nervous and scared, Maher called an outright fabrication.
“Bulls–t! It’s so funny, because I got so much s–t from the left for reporting honestly that, in person, he was very different, very nice, very gracious,” Maher said. “And then he says, no, he was scared. I’m like the Democrats with an election. I just can’t win!”
Watch the video clip over on Mediaite.
