Donald Trump held a high-powered roundtable at the White House Thursday, with conservative rock star Kid Rock dining alongside sports pundit Stephen A Smith and liberal comedian Bill Maher.
Maher had made headlines after having a mostly positive sit-down with Trump – who once sued the HBO comic for saying his father was an orangutan – in March of 2025.
Though both had returned to insulting one another in the months since, Maher attended alongside longtime friend Rock and frequent guest and ESPN star Smith.
Speaking on Fox News Friday, Rock revealed what the four men from wildly different backgrounds all agreed upon in the room at what he called an ‘epic’ dinner.
‘One thing we all wholeheartedly agreed on is that socialism and communism has no place to have a foothold in our government,’ he said, as part of a critique of Democrat Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
‘Two Democrats, two Republicans sit down, break bread, have laughs, have tough conversations on a lot of the issues,’ is how Rock – real name Bob Ritchie – described it.
Maher, he said, brought up the war in Iran and bringing back interpreters from the war in Afghanistan that helped Americans during the fighting.
Smith, speaking to Sean Hannity on Friday, said that he brought up issues with funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Donald Trump held a high-powered roundtable at the White House Thursday, with conservative rock star Kid Rock dining alongside sports pundit Stephen A Smith and liberal comedian Bill Maher. Pictured: Maher, Rock and Trump with Dana White at their first dinner together in March 2025
Speaking on Fox News Friday, Rock (pictured) revealed what the four men from wildly different backgrounds all agreed upon in the room at what he called an ‘epic’ dinner
While he praised Trump for signing the Futures Act, which delivered over $250 million annual for HBCUs, that the President’s war on ‘DEI’ had made corporations worried about donating to them for fear they’d be attacked on those grounds.
‘He took heed to that and said that was something he was going to think about strongly,’ Smith added, saying Trump promised he would meet with his people next week on the issue.
Maher has yet to speak out about the gathering, as his HBO show was on hiatus this week.
Smith and Maher were spotted later that not at the famous Washington DC jazz bar Madam’s Organ, celebrating the sports commentator’s birthday.
Trump, for his part, was delighted with how the ‘great’ evening had went when asked about it by the press on Friday.
‘I think they had a good time,’ he said, adding that Smith and Maher are especially fond of him despite their political leanings.
‘Even though they have to put on a certain little facade for their people, they like Trump and I actually like them. We had a great time.’
He added that he, Smith, Maher and Rock all ‘took a little tour’ of the new White House ballroom.
Maher (pictured), Rock said, brought up the war in Iran and bringing back interpreters from the war in Afghanistan that helped Americans during the fighting
Smith, speaking to Sean Hannity on Friday, said that he brought up issues with funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities
‘Bill Maher, I tell you what, he likes me a lot more than people understand, and I actually like him.
Maher said Trump was ‘gracious and measured’ in what he described as a positive meeting with the president back in March of 2025.
Maher has always attacked Trump on his HBO show dating back over a decade, when the two were involved in a lawsuit over Maher claiming the president’s father was an orangutan.
On his show following the summit, he took time out exclusively to ‘give you my book report on my visit to the White House.’
The lefty comedian confirmed the meeting had been arranged by musician and Trump fan Rock, who also attended: ‘Because we share a belief that there’s gotta be something better than hurling insults at each other from 3,000 miles away.’
He slammed those who saw the event as some kind of important diplomacy meeting.
‘For all the people who treated this like it was some sort of summit meeting, you’re ridiculous. Like I was gonna sign a treaty or something? I’m a f***ing comedian, I have no power! He’s the most powerful leader in the world, I’m not the leader of anything,’ Maher said.
The comic did say that he wanted to represent ‘a contingent of centrist-minded people who believe there’s got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.’
Trump motions to the press as he walks to board Air Force One on Friday
Smith and Maher were spotted later that not at the famous Washington DC jazz bar Madam’s Organ, celebrating the sports commentator’s birthday
Longtime critic Bill Maher said Donald Trump was ‘gracious and measured’ in what he described as a positive meeting with the president , to the point that he walked away with a cheeky gift
He confirmed that Trump was a ‘different’ person than he’d seen in the public eye over the last decade and even the night before, when the president publicly wondered if the meeting was even a good idea.
‘The guy I met is not the person who, the night before, s***-tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this dinner was a bad idea, and what a deranged asshole I was.’
‘He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,’ Maher added.
Perhaps most striking to Maher was that Trump ‘laughed’ and has a sense of humor about himself.
‘First good sign, before I left for the capital, I had my staff collect and print out this list of almost 60 different insulting epithets that the president said about me,’ Maher said.
‘I brought this to the White House because I wanted him to sign it, which he did with good humor,’ he added.
He joked about how the hoards of MAGA haters must be hating this: ‘I know as I say that, millions of liberal sphincters just tightened.’
‘I’m gonna report what happened and you decide. If that’s not enough pure Trump hate for you, I don’t give a f***,’ Maher said unapologetically.
Maher has dinner in the White House with President Donald Trump, Kid Rock and Dana White
Trump signed a list of insults the president had directed at Maher over the years ‘with good humor’
He said that the president did not ask him for his support and when he gifted Maher several Trump hats, he didn’t ask him to take a photograph wearing them.
‘I’m just taking it as a positive this person exists because everything I’ve ever not like about him was, I swear to God, absent, at least on this night with this guy,’ he said.
The discussion largely was one of Trump asking for Maher’s thoughts on various hot political topics, which he said he was heard out on, if not agreed with.
He confronted Trump mostly that he agreed with him on several issues, like immigration, improving police morale, keeping transgender people out of women’s sports and several other ideas.
‘I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,’ he said.
Maher said that while he voted for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, ‘I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was comfortable talking to Donald Trump.’
‘I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days,’ he said, taking shots at liberals for their ineffective means of protest against the president.
The ‘Picture’ crooner has said he wanted to broker the meeting to send a message of ‘unity’ to Americans.
Rock and Maher in 1999 during the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence Dinner at Pickford Estate in Beverly Hills
Trump, UFC president Dana White, and Kid Rock pose fora photo during the UFC 295 event at Madison Square Garden on November 11, 2023
However, it appeared the spirit of unity had not lasted long, as the pair went back to insulting one another after the show aired.
Trump at one point joked about how quickly Maher had asked for a vodka tonic upon entering the White House, calling him ‘absolutely pathetic.’
The President has also called him an ‘absolute lightweight’ and made fun of his low TV ratings.
Maher has slammed Trump on his tariff policies, while defending his show’s ratings.
