The Chris Cuomo Project - BONUS: Bill Maher Explains Why He’s Having Dinner With Donald Trump

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Bill Maher (comedian, host, HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and podcast host, “Club Random”) joins Chris Cuomo to discuss why he accepted a private dinner invitation from President Trump and what he hopes comes of it. Maher opens up about his criticism of both political parties, the loss of trust in institutions, and why he believes comedy and commentary can improve with age. He and Cuomo also dig into government overreach, regulation in California, the failures of environmental policy, and what gives Maher the most concern for America’s future. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you were invited to the White House by President Trump, would you go? I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. As you can see, this was so urgent, I had to do it for my NewsNation set. The answer to the question is you go. Now, you don't go if you're me to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring and let people know that Trump said you're okay. That I wouldn't do.

But you get invited to go to the White House by the President of the United States. That is a privilege. And Bill Maher has been given that privilege. And I sat down with him to do his podcast, and I asked him if I could get some questions in there of my own. He said, sure. And he's going to go meet a man who he has criticized like nobody else has in show business. He has been chewing on Trump's ass like a dog toy for years.

Now he's gonna go meet him. Why? What does he expect from it? And I wanted to get a little deeper into what's motivating Bill Maher right now because he's never been more relevant than he is today at almost 70. Why?

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at oracle.com slash CCP. That's oracle.com slash CCP. Your process. People watch you, they see the monologue, and they can easily believe that, wow, it's amazing how we just came up with this. How much work goes into what we get to see? A lot, all week.

I mean, we're here at the podcast. That's my little break in the week. But other than that, I'm a late riser, but I work basically all week for the one show. Real time is like football, once a week. My old show, Politically Incorrect, was like baseball every night. When you do it every night, it can only be so good.

When you do it once a week, you wanna make it as perfect as you can. So, yeah, I mean, there's about 40%, maybe 30% of the show is written, the monologue, the desk piece, the new rules and the editorial. That takes many, many, many, many hours, especially the editorial. And then the panel discussion, that you can't.

No. No, that's, you know, those are topics of the week with people, and hopefully they're great on them, and you can add something, but, you know but I can't control how that panel discussion goes. I can control the written elements so people can be guaranteed every week. I want them to feel like, oh, that's a kick-ass monologue. That was just really hysterically funny desk piece.

The new rules were funny, the editorial, great, love that. And then, hopefully, the other part of the show was great, love that. And then, you know, hopefully the other part of the show was great too, but you know, we were saying before in the podcast, you can only control what you can and don't mess your mind up about worrying what you can control. How much does Friday's offering resemble

where you started on Monday? Well, I usually give out the editorial assignment the Thursday before. Monday I get the first draft, everybody's pass on that. So, you know, it's a process. I like that, that I have all week to make it just the way I want it. I do a rewrite every night.

You know, the idea sticks. I do a rewrite every night. The idea sticks, for example, last week it was about, hey, Doge, you're cutting all this shit, okay, but what about the Pentagon? That's the biggest target there is, and you said you were gonna do it, and- Instead you gave us the F-47. Right, and then the day that we were going to do the monologue, do that editorial, they announced 500-and-something million cuts.

It just made it better because in a $900 billion defense department, you're cutting 500-something million. It's just a pittance. So, but I had to rewrite it that morning, but it can be that close. Do you believe that you are at the height of your powers? No. I don't think you can ever believe you're at the height of anything. You have to always, I only look at the forwardness.

I don't look past or try not to. When I do, it's not helpful. And it's gone. If it's good, if you're thinking about something good in the past, it's gone. It's not there now. I can only look forward. So, you know, I, not uniquely, but fairly uniquely,

do something, unlike most people in show business, that can actually get better with age. Most things, no. Definitely not music. Definitely not sports. Definitely not modeling. Acting, very rarely. But you have to be iconic by the time you get to 70

to be working at 70. De Niro still works. He's iconic. Al Pacino, iconic, okay. But other than that, you're done. Sometimes you're done at 40. But comedy and news analysis is something that you can't, you can kind of lean into,

well, what I'm selling here is wisdom and funny, and I can still pull that off. Pull it off. Do you recognize that you have never been more relevant than you are right now? I recognize it now that you said it. Yeah, I'm just gonna sign on to that and agree. I hope so.

You know, I'm the same guy. You know, I really haven't changed that much. The world around me has changed, and then they say you changed, but I'm the same, basically, old school liberal that I always have been. And yes, the left has changed a lot, and the right has changed a lot, and even worse in many ways.

So I'm just trying, I mean, that was, I put out a book last year and that was sort of the theme of the book was I went into my past, I looked, have I changed? And I really haven't. I mean, I quoted myself from a Playboy article I wrote in the 90s that was basically saying exactly what I'm saying today,

which is I'm an old school liberal, but I'm not gonna get on the crazy train with you. If you go someplace weird. I was saying to Maureen Dowd, she was here last week, that my parents who loved your father, loved Kennedy. My father, Barry Iris, loved Kennedy. I mean, gone these 30 something years. I don't know where his politics would be.

A dyed in the wool Kennedy liberal Democrat, if he came back and saw some of the shit that was going on on the left, and my Jewish mother, if she saw them chanting for Hamas, I can't guarantee they wouldn't be for Trump. They're World War II people. I can't get, that's not who they were,

but so much has changed in 30 years. I mean, so, you know, weird. What gives you the most concern for our future? Plastic. Like from the graduate? Like in my brain. That you think we're poisoning ourselves? Well, we definitely are.

Really, that's not a joke answer. That is what your biggest concern is. Yeah. That plastic has fucked us. Fuck me, I don't care about you. Thanks. I mean, I don't want you to die from plastic, but I care more about me.

Are you doing anything about it? No, we can't do anything about it. It's in everything. It's in the air we're breathing right now, because when this city burned down, because of obviously nature, which is partly global warming, partly bad governance, we all have a hand in this, but so much that's just in our homes is plastic. True, that when these place, when so much of the city burned down, we're just breathing it in.

And even before that, they said we were getting a credit card's worth of plastic in our body every week. It's in our brain. I mean, it's everywhere. Polar bears have it in them. Everything is made out of fucking plastic, and it's not biodegradable, and it's not meant to be in our bodies. And what do I really think is going to get me?

I don't think it's Trump, although I obviously have my issues. I think probably the likeliest source immediately would be a car accident. And then after that, it's plastic. And the air I breathe here in Los Angeles. You know, I mean, I was very mad at the Democrats when they lost because I said, my two big issues are democracy and the environment, and now I don't have a champion for either. So you lost, and that's what you gave me. So don't be mad at me for calling you losers,

loser assholes who fucked this election up. Fair appraisal. Does it frustrate you that this place burned down as epically as we all watched it, and you don't see an equal fixation on what to change as a result? Not even from Newsom, and he's the one who paid the price. I mean, Karen Bass will probably pay a price for it.

Newsom is on my show Friday. And? I can't wait to ask him. The price, I mean, Karen Bass will probably pay a price. Newsome is on my show Friday. And? I can't wait to ask him. But I still think apropos of what I was just talking about with the plastic, they haven't really released, maybe they haven't found it, but I bet you they do, how toxic these sites are?

I mean, after a fire, it's always a disaster. It looks like hell. But is it really a toxic site? I think this one probably is more, they are more toxic sites than we were, have so far been apprised. And that's one reason why they haven't started to rebuild, because they're toxic waste sites.

So I think they gotta get that cleaned up if they can. Maybe they can't, maybe it's in the soil. Maybe the whole fucking Palisades, the Goonies. But don't you think that they should be obsessed with how to do things differently. And you don't even hear them talking about it. Well, you certainly hear Newsom talking about it. He said, he's just started this podcast.

I'm sure you heard that. He said he was modeling it on what I do on real time. He said, I wanna talk to other people. His first guest was Charlie Kirk, who could be not more beyond the other side. I like this. I like the new Newsom. His first guest was Charlie Kirk, who could be not more beyond the other side. I like this. I like the new Newsom. I've been asking for this Newsom for a long time.

So I think he's a great candidate if he was more of a centrist Democrat and he seems like he wants to be. So I think it's great and I can't wait till Friday and talk to him. I can't wait to see what he says about what he's got working to make that not happen again when the fires come.

Well, the whole thing is about this state is just so fucked with over taxes and over regulation. I mean, I last time he was on, I was kidding him about the fact that I took three years to get my solar power turned on. Now I just had my roof redone because of the fires. Because now I want a fireproof roof. Two inspections, and you have to pay for those inspections. They're not free.

And I asked this on the show last week, I see it got picked up by a lot of people. Why do I have to have inspectors looking at my roof? It's my roof. If it falls on my head, that's my problem. I don't need the government looking over my shoulder here. And this is why we can't get anything done in this day. The government is just too in our fucking business.

And he was on last January, and I asked him about this and the red tape, and he had a big answer about, well, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're,

we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we Because if it's nothing, that's not good enough. It's hard for people in power not use the power. And that's where regulation comes from. Some of it is obviously necessary. They've got to cut the red tape. That's the blue state that runs completely on red tape. Well, look, I mean, you can have a whole conversation with him about what he's doing with Medicaid.

You guys give a lot of services to a lot of people who aren't legally in the state. And yes, you have a lot of people who are legal in the country. And you got stuff to talk about. Let me ask you this, last question. You're gonna meet with the president. I am? So Kid Rock makes it happen. What do you think has been the response so far?

What do you think it will be and why are you doing it? Which I'm totally for by the way, and I love it. I get it. Well, I'm doing it because first of all, it was presented as. A dare. Not a dare, no, just like, maybe this is a beginning to heal America.

No, I don't have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America. I can't. Okay, let's get that clear. I'm not going to be healing America. But if two guys who've been at each other for so long, I mean, it's kind of a Nixon to China thing. I have the credentials.

There was nobody who was harder on Trump or more prescient about the fact that he wasn't going to leave office voluntarily than I was. I feel like I have the credentials. But they also respect me because I'm honest about the woke train to crazy town. And I don't shrink from that. And I've also lost a lot of fans for that.

The woke people have left the building and I'm willing to make that sacrifice. But it does give you a certain credibility. So I just think to meet somebody, first of all, it's an honor to be invited to the White House. Yes, it is. And I've already had a couple of people who I said to them,

you know, I'm just going to take it as a backhanded compliment that you glide right past the idea that little Bill Maher from Rivervale, New Jersey, just a humble kid from the suburbs was invited for a private dinner at the White House. You glide right past that to how dare you talk to him. And that you're not impressed by it at all.

I'm impressed by it a lot. I'm impressed the fuck out of it. I get to go to the White House and yes, that is the structure of this dinner is just let's talk. Let's talk to each other face to face. Let's not stop shouting from 3000 miles away. So if they expect me to be living in a MAGA hat, they're gonna be very disappointed, but I know they don't.

And I think it's gonna be, look, it probably will accomplish very little, but you gotta try, man, you gotta try. I love it. You know, Kanye, Bill Maher, thank you very much, but you gotta try, man. You gotta try. I love it. You know, Kanye. Bill Maher. Thank you very much. Appreciate you.

Love being with you, bud. Yeah, this was so much fun. And I love that you're going. I think it's graced. For exactly that. It is graced, isn't it? 100%. Yes. And I will celebrate it when it happens.

Great, I appreciate that. ["Dreams of a New World"] Bill Maher, top of class. it happens. Great. I appreciate that. Bill Maher, top of class. I say it all the time and he proves it again and again and again. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you for joining me on the Chris Cuomo project. Appreciate you subscribing and following and going to the sub stack for five bucks a month. There's so much content on there. It's embarrassing

how much I have on there. And thank you for checking me out at News Nation, 8P, 11P Eastern every weekday night. The challenges are real. The solution is simple. Let's get after it.