Trump’s longest social media tirade yet never passed through his own fingers.
President Donald Trump, 80, dictated the more than 1,300-word Truth Social post aloud aboard Air Force One while executive assistant Natalie Harp, 35, typed it, and the broadside against comedian Bill Maher, 70, went up Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, shortly after the president’s return to the White House.
The in-flight dictation settles a question that had been open since the post landed. Hosts of the podcast “Pod Save America” floated the theory that Harp was taking the president’s words down as he read them aloud. They were right.
“Lee Greenwood and Friends”
Maher set the president off with a monologue on his HBO show “Real Time” on Friday, Oct. 23, an episode whose guest was former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 29. Maher spent part of it on the president’s standing inside his own party, joking that the signs outside Trump rallies now advertise “Lee Greenwood and Friends.”
He also noted that four hours of dinner at the White House had not produced a single compliment for him. Then he turned to the president’s praise of Sen. Jon Husted: “It’s just a little odd that Trump keeps gushing about men’s bodies—and how handsome they are, and their jawlines, and their a–es, their physiques. I’m a little hurt.”
Ten Phone Calls and a “Gofer”
Trump opened the post by branding Maher a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER,” the capital letters his own, and dismissed “Real Time” as a low-rated show on a network that, in his telling, had long ago stopped being hot.
He aimed the next stretch at 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 that he phoned 10 times before the second dinner was arranged. His own first reaction to the pitch, by his account: “Fellas, this guy’s a Goofball.” He told Maher to stop calling and told LaBella to ease up too.
The Dinner Clock and the Timestamps
Trump disputed Maher’s four-hour math, putting the dinner at two hours or less and writing that “everybody was happy.” He claimed the White House had timestamps to prove it. He said he learned nothing from an evening he called “a waste of time.”
He called Maher a “major POTHEAD,” said the comedian had a drink in hand while touring the White House and was drunk, and said he “looked like hell this time.”
The president 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%. He contrasted that with the 86% he said Ronald Reagan drew.
Trump stood by his endorsements, argued with Maher over Iran and said the comedian had lied about illegal voting in California. On the press briefing room, he said he never planned a pool there, though he is weighing moving reporters out and putting the room to other use.
He praised Leavitt’s “Real Time” appearance and described her questioner as a “biased, dumb SLEAZEBAG.” He told Maher to switch off his “Laugh Machine” and said he would ask Republicans to stop covering him. He closed by vowing never to watch the show again, dismissing it as “FAKE NEWS.”
The same Sunday post ranged well past Maher. Trump attacked Fox News — “That’s the only reason this race is close, if it is indeed close” — branded Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a “Jihadist member of the Muslim Brotherhood” and re-upped his endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu, all days before the midterm elections.
The Dinner That Ended the Goodwill
The two men had a relationship before the feud. Kid Rock set up their first White House meal in late March 2025, and Maher spoke warmly about the president on his show afterward. Trump later attacked him anyway and said the evening had not been worth his time.
Maher collected the Mark Twain Prize from the Kennedy Center Board in June 2026. On the Oct. 12 episode of “Club Random,” he described the re-invitation as coming “out of the blue” and quoted the president telling him, “I promise I won’t say bad things about you like I did the last time.” Maher recounted his text back: “You know what? You’re the president of the United States. Say whatever the f— you want. I’m just glad we’re talking.”
Maher returned to the White House on Oct. 15 alongside 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 goodwill did not survive the monologue.
