In The Know

Maher quips WHCD a chance for Trump ‘to say all sorts of insulting things’ to press

Comments:

by Ryan Mancini - 04/25/26 4:04 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Ryan Mancini - 04/25/26 4:04 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Comedian Bill Maher on Friday quipped about the White House Correspondents Dinner being a chance for President Trump “to say all sorts of insulting things” to the media.

Maher told the panel on his HBO series “Real Time” that he was “very interested” in watching the dinner to see how political the jokes will be, and how Trump will receive the jokes.

“This is why Trump –– a lot of people say this is why he ran for president in the first place, because he was at the one where Obama just tore him a new a–hole from the podium,” Maher said. “And now he’s going to get a chance to say all sorts of insulting things to the press, just like any one of his press conferences, so it’s not really that different.”

It is conventionally known that former President Obama’s jokes about Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner further sowed tensions between the two men and helped propel Trump toward his 2016 presidential campaign. Obama compared Trump’s birther conspiracy to other conspiracy theories like the 1969 moon landing and the whereabouts of slain rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

Maher then raised Trump’s legal settlements with various media companies over their coverage of the president before and since his return to the White House last year, namely with CBS and ABC News.

“It’s a little awkward, him speaking to the people who he also calls the ‘enemy of the American people,'” the host said. “He literally calls them the enemy, which I find to be –– I wouldn’t be personally affronted by it but, you know, he does it to everybody.”

“But it is the fourth estate,” he added. “I mean, when you take on the press like that, I think you are flirting with something that really knocks out one of the pillars of what we love about this country.”

Trump is set to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner for the first time during his two presidencies.

“In honor of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!,” he wrote on Truth Social last month.

The White House Correspondents Association organizes the dinner, which helps fund journalism scholarships for undergraduate students. The dinner is largely attended by White House correspondents, editors and news organizations from several outlets based in Washington, D.C.

Past dinners have included comedians telling topical jokes that sometimes target the president. “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert — the featured entertainer at the 2006 dinner attended by then-President George W. Bush — said on Thursday that he won’t attend this year’s event.

Trump is expected to speak at Saturday’s dinner. Colbert predicted that the president will “attack the press and target publications he has accused of writing negatively about his administration.”

Mentalist Oz Pearlman will serve as the entertainer for this year’s dinner.

Add as preferred source on Google