Trump Meeting Contrasts: Bill Maher vs. Gretchen Whitmer

In case you missed it over the weekend, left-leaning comedian Bill Maher offered his audience a thorough review of his meeting with President Trump at the White House -- including the hilarious detail that Maher arrived with a printed-out list of insults Trump had hurled at him over the year...and Trump autographed it. Those who loathe Trump were furious with Maher for 'legitimizing' him with the interaction, and for seeming to be totally transparent about how it all went down. His review was too positive for their liking, it appears, even though it was packed full of caveats and jokes at Trump's expense. Given Maher's well-known political bent, and with Trump being Trump, the encounter could have devolved into a messy disaster. Some people were clearly hoping that's how it would turn out, with each participant retreating to his partisan corner in the aftermath, trading hyperbolic barbs as their respective tribes cheered them on. But that's not how it happened.

If you haven't seen it already, I encourage you to watch this:

Twelve days ago, I had dinner with President Trump, a dinner that my friend @KidRock set up because we share the belief that there has to be something better than hurling insults from 3000 miles away. pic.twitter.com/KE2t2eyBkI
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 12, 2025

Look, I get it. It doesn't matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian; it matters who he is on the world stage. I'm just taking it as a positive that this person exists, because everything I've ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent, at least on this night with this guy. Bob — Kid Rock —told me the night before, he said, ‘If you want to get a word in edgewise, you're going to have to cut him off, (or) he'll just go on.’ Not at all. I've had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don't look you in the eye, people who really don't listen because they just want to get to their next thing, people whose response to things you say just doesn't track. Like, what? None of that with him. And he mostly steered the conversations: ‘So what do you think about this?’ I know. Your mind is blown. So is mine...I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him, and honestly? I voted for Clinton and Obama but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That's just how it went down. Make of it what you will. Me? I feel it's emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.
I'm just reporting exactly what I saw over two and a half hours. I went into the mine, and that's what's down there. A crazy person doesn't live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is (expletive) up. It's just not as (expletive) up as I thought it was...So MAGA fans, don't worry, your boy gave me nothing. Just hats. Hats and a very generous amount of time and a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend, even though I'm not MAGA, which was the point of the dinner. My favorite part of the whole night was we were standing in the (room off the Oval Office) and he said, ‘You know I've heard from a lot of people who really like that we're having this dinner. Not all, but a lot.’ And I said, ‘Same, a lot of people told me they loved it, but not all.’ And we agreed the people who don't even want us to talk? We don't like you. Don't talk as opposed to what? Writing the same editorial for the millionth time and making 25-hour speeches into the wind. Really, that's what liberals have?

"That's my report," Maher concluded. "You can hate me for it, but I'm not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured, and why he isn't that in other settings, I don't know. And I can't answer, and it's not my place to answer. I'm just telling you what I saw," he said, adding that he "wasn't high." As Matt also highlighted, one of Maher's panelists didn't seem with the host's decision, suggesting that Maher had fallen into a public relations trap. The comedian rejected that mentality:

Bill Maher panelist openly triggered by his meeting with Trump:
Josh Rogin: "Counterpoint: But I think you've fallen into the trap and I think I represent 99% of the internet when I say this:
You've played the game of proximity is principle. Maybe he wasn't there in good faith."… pic.twitter.com/ILkfiUBwh7
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) April 12, 2025

'What is the alternative?' is a good question. I guess it would be simply refusing to meet someone with whom you disagree intensely on many issues. Or it might look something like this:

Wow. I saw her looking like she wanted to disappear, but had not seen this picture. From NYT: pic.twitter.com/T6eWV7KNXA
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 12, 2025

Apparently she wanted to meet with Trump, but didn't want anyone to see it, which is a very different approach than Maher's. She's an ambitious elected official and he's a television personality, of course, so the incentives are disparate. But I'm not sure this look will help further her ambitions. The image conveys a childish, cowardly, unserious attitude, and her team's reaction to the episode was incoherent. And it's rightly being treated with ridicule. I'll leave you with this: