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Donald Trump tears into Bill Maher in his longest ever Truth Social rant
The comedian Bill Maher fell victim to a scathing tirade from Donald Trump, whose extraordinary attack reportedly became the longest post the US president has ever published on Truth Social.
According to an analysis by CNN and a third-party tracking firm, Trump's 1,323-word rant focused not on the crucial upcoming midterm elections or the war in the Middle East, but on his increasingly strained relationship with the HBO host.
Trump's scathing rant on Maher
Beginning with an all-caps declaration that Maher was a “complete and total loser”, Trump eventually ended his lengthy post with a blunt message to the comedian, as he wrote, “Bill: Don’t call anymore.”
Amid the personal insults, Trump also revealed that he was considering moving journalists away from their long-established workspace at the White House, following recent reports that he was contemplating the move.
“I am thinking about moving the Press, and putting them in a different location, but I will use that location for very badly needed space,” he claimed.
However, the bulk of the president's lengthy rant was directed at Maher following Friday's episode of Real Time, the comedian's first show since the pair shared dinner at the White House on October 15.
The day after the meal, Trump had described it as a “great dinner”, adding that Maher “likes me a lot more than people understand, and I actually like him,” but that apparent amicability did not last long.
After watching Maher's latest show, Trump took aim at the comedian, his business partner Chuck LaBella and HBO, making several claims that CNN said were inaccurate.
He eventually declared: “I never watched your show much, but I will never watch it again, because it is nothing more than FAKE NEWS.”
Real Time is a satirical talk show known for Maher's political commentary, jokes and discussions with guests from across the political spectrum, with Friday's programme featuring former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, and Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear.
After CNN re-aired the show on Saturday, Trump appeared to swing between disappointment and outright hostility towards Maher throughout his rant.
“You’re a hopeless guy,” the president wrote at one point.
Elsewhere, he issued a warning that appeared to suggest he wanted Republicans to stop appearing on the comedian's programme.
“I’m going to have the Republicans not cover you anymore,” Trump claimed.
Trump also questioned how Maher managed to get laughs from his studio audience, appearing to suggest that the show used a laugh track.
“Bill Maher lied, but he lies about everything, and I believe he lied to me when I asked him, with all the applause and laughter he gets after almost everything he says, about thing that aren’t funny or even any good, what Laughter Machine does he use? People can’t think he’s funny.”
The October 15 dinner also included ESPN presenter Stephen A. Smith and musician Kid Rock and speaking on his podcast the following day, Smith said: “we were there for over four hours in the White House, and Donald Trump did not run from any questions.”
Maher also referred to the gathering as a four-hour meeting on his HBO programme, prompting Trump to challenge the account.
“Overall, I thought it was a good meeting. It didn’t last four hours, it lasted two hours, maybe less, and everybody was happy. We have the timestamps. I learned nothing, and felt it was a waste of time,” Trump wrote.
Trump hits back on approval comments
The president was also angered by Maher's comments about his approval ratings, claiming the comedian had wrongly suggested that Trump was losing support among Republicans.
“I have High Ratings and, more importantly, he said that I’m losing the support and approval of the Republican Party when, in fact, CNN just came out with a Poll showing that I’m at 98 and 99% support within the Republican Party, an All Time Record High,” Trump said.
However, CNN's latest poll, released the previous week, put Trump's approval rating among Republicans at 74%, described as “a new numeric low”.
His figures of 98% and 99% appear to refer to an earlier video featuring CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten discussing a separate poll, which found that self-identified MAGA Republicans continued to support Trump by an overwhelming margin.
Trump has played the clip at midterm election rallies, but the wider Republican Party includes millions of voters who do not identify as part of the MAGA movement, repeatedly treating support from his loyal base as representative of the entire party.
According to CNN’s research, his biting attack on Maher was almost double the length of his second-longest post on Truth Social, with the 723-word rant, published in May, complaining about plumbing and air conditioning at the Kennedy Center before expanding into attacks on a federal judge and his wife, a Supreme Court ruling on tariffs and birthright citizenship.
Factbase, which tracks Trump's social media activity, described the latest attack on Maher as his “longest post ever out of 97,455 cumulative social media posts since 2011”, according to a statement published on X.
Trump initially used Twitter, where posts were restricted to 140 characters for many years, before the platform and other social media services began accommodating much longer messages.