Donald Trump’s longest social media tirade so far never passed through his fingers.
President Donald Trump, 80, dictated a Truth Social post of 1,322 words attacking comedian Bill Maher, 70, while flying aboard Air Force One, and his executive assistant, Natalie Harp, 35, typed it out as he spoke. The post went live Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, shortly after the president returned to the White House.
Hosts of the podcast “Pod Save America” had floated the theory that Harp was taking down words Trump read aloud. They were right.
Lee Greenwood and Friends
Maher set the whole thing off on Friday, Oct. 23, with a monologue on his HBO show “Real Time” about the president’s standing inside his own party. Trump had tuned in “expectantly” to watch that night’s guest, Karoline Leavitt, 29, the former White House press secretary.
The comedian joked that signs outside Trump rallies now advertise “Lee Greenwood and Friends.” He needled the president over his habit of complimenting men’s looks, jawlines and physiques — the physique joke aimed specifically at Trump’s praise of Sen. Jon Husted — and said four hours of dinner at the White House had not produced a single compliment.
Maher also went after an ad from Vivek Ramaswamy, the Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate, that featured the mother of Democrat Amy Acton. “Trump said this is fair game. A 12-year-old rape victim is fair game? I know that looks bad. It sounds better on a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. During his interview with Leavitt, he called the president “half sane.”
The Gofer and the Goofball
Trump opened the post by branding Maher a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER,” the capital letters his own, and called “Real Time” a low-rated show on a network that, in his telling, stopped being hot long ago.
He turned next to Chuck LaBella, the longtime producer who works with Maher on the podcast “Club Random.” Trump wrote that LaBella had been a “gofer” on NBC’s “The Apprentice” and had phoned 10 times before the second dinner was arranged. His first reaction to the pitch, he wrote, was this: “Fellas, this guy’s a Goofball.” He told Maher to stop calling, and to tell LaBella to ease up too.
Trump insisted that the dinner ran two hours or less and that “everybody was happy,” against the four hours Maher cited in his monologue, and claimed the White House has timestamps to prove it. He learned nothing from the evening, he wrote, calling it “a waste of time.”
The president described Maher as a “major POTHEAD” and said the comedian toured the White House with a drink in hand and was drunk. Maher, he added, “looked like hell this time.”
Trump rejected Maher’s read on his approval numbers, citing CNN polling that he said put his support within the Republican Party at 98% to 99%, against the 86% he said Ronald Reagan drew. He stood by his endorsements, argued with Maher over Iran and wrote that the comedian had lied about illegal voting in California.
He wrote that he never planned a pool for the press briefing room, though he is weighing moving reporters out and putting the room to another use. He praised Leavitt for her “Real Time” appearance while describing her interviewer as a “biased, dumb SLEAZEBAG.”
Trump told Maher to switch off his “Laugh Machine,” said he would ask Republicans to stop covering him and closed with a vow never to watch the show again, dismissing it as “FAKE NEWS.”
The same Sunday post, published days before the midterm elections, also attacked Fox News. “That’s the only reason this race is close, if it is indeed close,” Trump wrote. He branded Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a “Jihadist member of the Muslim Brotherhood” and repeated his endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. El-Sayed went on to win Michigan’s Senate seat on Nov. 3, as Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress.
Two Dinners and a Twain Prize
The feud follows two White House meals. Kid Rock set up the first, in late March 2025, and Maher spoke warmly about the president on his show afterward. Trump attacked him anyway, saying the evening had not been worth his time.
The Kennedy Center Board honored Maher with the Mark Twain Prize in June 2026. On the Oct. 12 episode of “Club Random,” Maher said Trump had contacted him “out of the blue” to ask him to the White House again.
Maher went back on Oct. 15, joining Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock, and bragged about the invitation. Trump told reporters that Maher “likes me a lot more than people understand,” and that the feeling was mutual. The monologue ended the goodwill.
The Cat’s Out of the Bag
Maher hit back on “Real Time” on Friday, Oct. 30, reading parts of the post on air. “I’ve never called you. You called me!” he said. Answering the “POTHEAD” jab on the same broadcast, he said, “Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag now, huh?”