Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher said President Donald Trump has a “certain type of mental disorder” where he “just speaks his interior monologue.” Maher recounted his dinner with the president and more in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep. Maher was recently awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. “He is a crazy person in the extent that he definitely has a form of Tourette’s syndrome,” Maher said. “He just blurts out whatever is on his mind often. It’s funny. He’s both, at the same time, the most full of sh*t person and also the most honest.” “You know, I saw him, he was doing an interview very much like this recently with somebody, and he didn’t like something she said, and he just went, ‘You’re a terrible person.’ Now, that’s just not how we act. Even though, to be honest, I’ve thought that,” Maher said. Maher also lashed out at the media for continuing to fall for Trump’s hijinks and “endlessly reading and writing the same story.” “That’s just the way he talks,” Maher said of Trump’s personal attacks. “It just is. When he insults me, people say, ‘Oh my God, did you see Trump did it again?’ He’s called you this. That’s just who he is. There’s no point at this moment after 10 years. I’ve done all these jokes. I did all the editorials. He’s a mafia boss. He’s a used car salesman. I did it. The fact that people can just still get their jollies endlessly reading and writing the same story. I get it. He’s an a**hole. I’m with you. I just don’t know how this advances anything.”

STEVE INSKEEP, NPR: I want to follow up on one of many things you’ve done in the last couple of years that have made news. You had dinner with President Trump. BILL MAHER: Yes. INSKEEP: Talked about it on your program, gave a report of what you did. Many people hated that you met him. Some people liked that you met him. I’m thinking about the conclusion you drew, which was that, if I can summarize, you found a sane person at dinner who plays a crazy person on TV as opposed to an actual crazy person. MAHER: Right. INSKEEP: But we’ve had another year of his presidency to observe, and you’ve been critical of a lot of it. Do you stick with that conclusion? That he’s a sane person who is just acting crazy? MAHER: He’s so more self-aware than he lets on in public. That’s another thing I said, and I’m absolutely so much more self-aware, not belligerent. And by the way, everybody who meets him says the same thing. INSKEEP: Why do you think he would play a crazy person on TV? He has a choice. MAHER: Well, he is a crazy person in the extent that he definitely has a form of Tourette’s syndrome. He just blurts out whatever is on his mind often. It’s funny. He’s both, at the same time, the most full of sh*t person and also the most honest. You know, I saw him, he was doing an interview very much like this recently with somebody, and he didn’t like something she said, and he just went, you’re a terrible person. Now, that’s just not how we act. Even though, to be honest, I’ve thought that. Not necessarily about you. We’ll see how this goes. INSKEEP: We may get to that. Yeah, there’s time. MAHER: But just, there’s something different about the mind that does that. Yeah, he just speaks his interior monologue, which is just, you know, that is a certain type of mental disorder. But it seems to be, come out when he feels in any way attacked, which is like outside of his comfort zone. You know, what can I tell you? I mean, I just found a very different person. You know, the people who attack me have no argument. They just have a feeling. Their feeling is, I never want to come in second in a, I hate Donald Trump the most contest. Boring. Okay? Nobody has been harder on Donald Trump. That’s why the dinner happened to begin with. It was sort of a Nixon to China thing, you know? Let’s just talk to each other instead of hurling insults. Well, he’s back to hurling insults, because I never once changed my tune when I got back to work. I never said I would. And their other argument is, you’ll elevate him? Oh my God, when is he going to become president? INSKEEP: He’s pretty elevated now. MAHER: I mean, isolate him? He’s got a lot of friends. He doesn’t read the briefing books. He does everything by people saying, be one of the people saying. Be one of those people who talk to him. Because he does look you in the eye and listen. And he does change his mind sometimes, because he has no fixed beliefs. They need more people like this, me talking to him, not less. INSKEEP: Do you talk to him regularly? MAHER: I would not say regularly. And once he went back to insulting me on his social media. But there was a time when he would yell at me on my Twitter, on my texting. He would yell at me. INSKEEP: Meaning all caps, texts? MAHER: No, not all caps. But just, you know, I thought you were better than, you’re still a lunatic. INSKEEP: He thinks you’re a lunatic. OK, you don’t think he’s a lunatic, he thinks you’re a lunatic. MAHER: That’s just the way he talks. It just is. When he insults me, people say, ” Oh my God, did you see Trump did it again? He’s called you this. That’s just who he is. There’s no point at this moment after 10 years. I’ve done all these jokes. I did all the editorials. He’s a mafia boss. He’s a used car salesman. I did it. The fact that people can just still get their jollies endlessly reading and writing the same story. I get it. He’s an a**hole. I’m with you. I just don’t know how this advances anything. INSKEEP: Have you thought differently about him at all, as he has spent so much more time on decorating and on monuments to himself? Yeah, these. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you choke on the water. MAHER: These are the things I don’t care about. This is his genius, getting you to care about. INSKEEP: I shouldn’t care about that arch or whatever. MAHER: F*ck no. INSKEEP: Go on. MAHER: Absolutely not. Not the arch, not the pool, not the ballroom. This is all meaningless stuff. Steve Bannon famously said, the way we win is we flood the zone with sh*t, and you’re eating the shi*t. You don’t have to. Care about what’s important. I could name the politicization of the Justice Department, DOGE, ICE, corruption, you know, lots of things. And even stuff where it was not a bad idea, but they screwed up the execution, like the Iran war, like, you know, I mean, DOGE, ICE, all these things that they could have done better and they just can’t help themselves. This is a country where people get drunk with power. When they get in, happens to the Democrats to a degree too, and they always go too far and then the other side gets elected. And then we just live in this world where everybody’s just always undoing what the other one has just done. INSKEEP: One other question about this dinner. In recounting what happened, you said that you told the president you’re scaring people. MAHER: Yeah. INSKEEP: And then you said you didn’t remember what he said in response. MAHER: I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it wasn’t, I’m going to stop. INSKEEP: That was the thing that I most wanted to know. A thing I’d like to know as you spend time with him. Do you think he prefers to scare people? MAHER: Excuse me, but it also wasn’t what he does in public. It wasn’t, how dare you, you lunatic left crazy person. It was just like we’re talking, just like two people talking. INSKEEP: Do you think he wants to scare people? MAHER: Yes, I do. I think that’s part of the closing the border strategy. In his view, you have to be, in my view, unnecessarily cruel to get the message across. Welcome mat pulled up. Okay, we got it. We got that message. And that’s one of his big flaws. He just thinks you have to do things like that. He does lack a chip for compassion that is not a great quality in a president.

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