Bill Maher, an apparently confirmed Democrat, has recently been sounding remarkably sane. He has called out some of the worst Democrat excesses and even—gasp!—complimented some Republicans and supported their policies and actions. He’s been something of a surprise: 

Advertisement

“I never was a Democrat to begin with,” Maher said. “I always like caucus with the Democrats and I generally vote for them."

Maher has been a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump and repeatedly challenges Trump supporters who appear on Real Time with Bill Maher. At the same time, Maher had dinner with Trump in April 2025. The comedian has also called out several policies and practices associated with the Democratic Party.

Advertisement

After his dinner at the White House with Trump and Kid Rock, Maher shocked Democrats: 

For what I know you’ve all been waiting for, I’d like to give you my book report on my visit to the White House. As you know, 12 days ago, I had dinner with President Trump —  a dinner that was set up by my friend Kid Rock, because we share a belief that there's got to be something better than hurling insults from 3,000 miles away.

Advertisement

And let me first say that to all the people who treated this like it was some kind of summit meeting, you are ridiculous. Like I was going to sign a treaty or something. I have no power. I'm a … comedian and he's the most powerful leader in the world. I'm not the leader of anything, except maybe a contingent of centrist-minded people who think there's got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.

OK, so meet up in person, maybe it'll be different. Spoiler alert, it was.

Advertisement

Maher’s monologue about the dinner was horrifying to Democrats. He found Trump gracious, funny, and genuine. They hated that. More evidence of Maher’s relative sanity:

Maher agreed with President Trump on parts of his feud with Harvard, threatened to quit his HBO show if forced to cover Trump nonstop, and criticized the concept of cancel culture.

Advertisement

And then the “by whatever means necessary” Democrat Party ethic, typified by their embrace of the bizarre Graham Platner, ruined it:

Advertisement

Graphic: X Post

Maher addressed the Maine race for U.S. Senate during his closing monologue on Friday and told voters in Maine to vote for Platner to “restore balance” in the Senate.

“I would still urge the folks in Maine to vote for him, for two reasons,” Maher told his audience. “One, we need to restore balance in our government and a Democratic Senate would help a lot with that. And two, get used to it. America is a country filled with a lot of broken, horribly-educated, phone-addicted, sort of nutty people.”

He elaborated:

Then Maher turned his attention to that infamous tattoo, saying, “And then, of course, there’s the Nazi tattoo on his chest. Seriously, this guy’s whole life is the movie ‘The Hangover.’ He doesn’t need a term in the Senate. He needs a gap year in Costa Rica. And yet I would still urge the folks in Maine to vote for him, for two reasons: One, we need to restore balance in our government and a Democratic Senate would help a lot with that. And two, get used to it. America is a country filled with a lot of broken, horribly-educated, phone-addicted, sort of nutty people. And as long as we live in a representative democracy, we are always electing our reflection in the mirror.”

What seems obvious is Maher experiences fits of sanity, but reflexively reverts to his Democrat caucusing nature. Our Republican Senate can’t even pass the SAVE Act, which is 80/20 popular, an extraordinarily rare margin on any political issue these days. “Balance” would see Democrats suddenly voting for that?  The idea of “balance” is common among Democrats who think the Supreme Court ought to represent public opinion rather than the Constitution. Their solution for that nonexistent problem is to unbalance the court to get their way regardless of the Constitution or public sentiment. 

Maher isn’t too fond of “sort of nutty” Americans but does have at least a somewhat realistic understanding of Platner’s textbook full of pathologies, yet wants Americans to vote for him anyway, apparently because Platner and Americans are mental defectives and that will restore balance to the Senate.  

And we don’t live in a “representative democracy” but in a representative, constitutional republic. Ask our British cousins about that. Their representative democracy lets immigrants rape their wives and daughters and arrests them for complaining about it.

Mahers’ increasingly common forays into sanity and American virtues are certainly welcome. His backsliding into the one, true, leftist faith is not.

Become a subscriber and get our weekly Friday newsletter with unique content from our editors. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription. 

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.