Maher Answers Trump's Long Social Media Post After Private White House Dinner

Comedian Bill Maher, host of "Real Time," responded on Friday's show to a Truth Social post of more than 1,300 words that President Donald Trump wrote about him after a private White House dinner. Several other guests also attended the dinner. Maher answered the post point by point and joked that dining at the White House is the opposite of eating at a Cheesecake Factory, because at the White House the hosts review the guests. He also compared having dinner with Trump to being one of Taylor Swift's exes. The social media post was described as an extended tirade against Maher. Separately, a commentary on NPR noted that former President Barack Obama had caused a kerfuffle with remarks about Trump's interior decorating at the White House. It floated the idea that state dinners could be held at The Cheesecake Factory instead of a ballroom.

RealClearPolitics, on the right, leads with Maher's rebuttal. Its headline uses his Cheesecake Factory line, and it stresses the length of Trump's 1,300-word-plus post and that Maher replied to it point by point. It treats the story as a direct exchange between Trump and Maher. NPR, on the left, takes a different angle. Its perspective piece centers on Obama's comments about White House decor and the ballroom, and it uses the Cheesecake Factory as a humorous suggestion for state dinners. In the excerpt, it does not mention Maher or Trump's post. The two sides share only the restaurant joke. TMZ, an alternative outlet, covers the Maher story as entertainment news and adds the Taylor Swift comparison, which the others omit.