- Trump critic Bill Maher joined President Trump, Kid Rock, and Dana White for a White House dinner, where they seem to have found common ground on issues like 'ending wokeness' and border security.
- The meeting included a private residence tour of the White House, featuring the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln Bedroom.
- Online, people seem to support the meeting for demonstrating civility across political differences, with Kid Rock saying, 'nothing happens if people don't break bread together and meet face-to-face.'
Long-time critic of President Donald Trump and HBO host Bill Maher joined the president, Kid Rock and Dana White for a dinner at the White House on Monday, and the four apparently found some common ground.
Trump teased the meeting on March 30 on Truth Social, saying his friend Kid Rock was the one who had proposed that he meet with Maher. “I really didn’t like the idea much, and don’t like it now, but thought it would be interesting,” Trump wrote.
Maher and Trump have been at odds for years, with Maher at one point calling the president “everything wrong with a human being stuffed into one man.” In the same vein, Trump has called Maher a “radical left maniac with modest television ratings.”
But the group got together, and 54-year-old musician Kid Rock said the result was “mind blowing,” in an appearance on Fox & Friends on Tuesday.
Kid Rock: ‘Nothing happens if people don’t break bread together and meet face-to-face’
In addition to dinner, Trump gave Maher, Kid Rock and White, who is CEO of UFC, a private residence tour of the White House, featuring the Gettysburg Address and the Lincoln Bedroom.
“We talked about things we had in common, you know, ending ‘wokeness,’ securing the border, the president was asking him what he thought about policy going on with Iran and Israel and things,” Kid Rock explained. “It blew my mind. I was very proud.”
A Fox reporter asked if he believes Maher walked away liking Trump. “100%,” Kid Rock said.
Greg Gutfeld, a Fox News host said the meeting started off with Maher showing up at the White House with a list of insults Trump had said about him. Gutfeld said Maher gave the list to Trump, “and what did he do? He signed it.”
Kid Rock explained a conversation he had with Maher about the meeting. “I said, ‘Bill, I know some of this Hollywood stuff, it’d probably be great for you to get thrown out, and it would be good for you to double down and say, ‘I can’t stand this guy.’ And he goes, ‘Bob, I’m not going to sabotage something that potentially could bring us and people together.‘” Kid Rock’s given name is Robert James Ritchie, and he goes by Bob.
Kid Rock added that Trump called him after the meeting. “Everybody’s mind was kind of blown,” he said, adding, “Everyone was a little suspect going into this.”
“We’re just trying to show people that, you know, we’ve been pretty hard on each other, but when you get face to face, maybe you can have a little more civility in this country and try to bring people together,” Kid Rock said.
He continued, “One thing we learned during Covid is that isolation breeds hatred. We need to get out and talk to one another.”
Maher said he would discuss the meeting in more depth on his show on April 11.
“Hey everybody, thank you for all the interest in my dinner with the president last night,” he wrote in an X post. “I promise, all will be revealed on the next @RealTimers on April 11. As it’s April 1 today, no one would believe what I said today anyway!”
The internet seems to support the meeting
Maher’s X post has been viewed nearly 1 million times, and while there is a fair sprinkling of harsh words from both sides of the aisle, the comments show a significant amount of support for Kid Rock’s plea to break bread with ideologically different people.
One stated, “More power to you brother. Respect. We have to get past the poison of partisanship. We have to give ourselves the chance to engage in dialogue.”
On The Five, Gutfeld also praised Maher and Trump for meeting civilly. “So both of these guys had something to lose, but they put their egos aside because they realize there’s nothing to lose once you put your ego aside,” he said.