It happened Friday night after HBO talk show host and political comic Bill Maher described his recent dinner in the White House with President Donald Trump. Maher said it was a successful effort to break bread instead of just hurling insults at each other.

But some in the media weren’t happy that the two met.

Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, on Maher’s show, accused his host of falling into Trump’s “trap.” He scolded, “For him, this was a PR stunt, and in his view, you were a prop in that PR stunt.”

From Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO:

JOSH ROGIN, WASHINGTON POST: Counterpoint? You know, Bill, I think you’re right in saying that people make too much of this. OK, it’s not the Yalta Summit, you’re not Churchill, Kid Rock is not Stalin, Trump, sure as s***, isn’t FDR, OK? So yes, I believe too much has been made about this, but I think you’ve fallen into the trap. I think I represent 99% of the internet when I say this, is that you have played the game of proximity is principle, and what people are worried about — it’s not your motivation, we believe you, we love you, everybody loves Bill, right?

So, I’m not questioning your motivation, I’m questioning Trump’s, OK? And if we can say that you went there in good faith, but maybe, just maybe he wasn’t there in good faith. I mean, you sold him on the Iran deal, and he took it in — I mean, give me a break, OK? So, the idea here is that your motivation is sound, but what’s the impact? And I think a lot of people out there, fans of yours, people who love you, people who are fans of you, like me, been fans of yours my whole life.

BILL MAHER: You don’t have to patronize me, dude —

ROGIN: OK. Fair enough.

MAHER: I don’t know you, I never met you, not everybody has to like it.

ROGIN: I’m just saying that this comes from a place of love. All I’m saying —

MAHER: That’s what we said, there are people who didn’t want to happen at all, you sound like one of them. It’s OK.

ROGIN: No, no.

MAHER: Did you hear what I said?

ROGIN: Yeah.

MAHER: What is the alternative to not talking? Just sitting at your lunch table and don’t talk to anybody?

ROGIN: I’ve talked to him, I’ve interviewed Trump. Piers has interviewed Trump.

MAHER: This was not an interview. This was not an interview.

ROGIN: I agree with the principle of engagement. I’m just saying from his perspective, you have to understand, that people who out there know, all Americans know, that for him, this was a PR stunt, and in his view, you were a prop in that PR stunt.

Twelve days ago, I had dinner with President Trump, a dinner that my friend @KidRock set up because we share the belief that there has to be something better than hurling insults from 3000 miles away. pic.twitter.com/KE2t2eyBkI

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 12, 2025

….

MAHER: The fact that you began your little rant with the internet — that tells me everything. You take your cues from the internet. Good luck! The internet is a cesspool that just wants to fight.

ROGIN: I support what you’re trying to do. I’m just saying the expectation that Donald Trump is going to be changed by something —

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MAHER: I said in the piece I did not think that was going to happen. I love the people on either side who ignore the parts they don’t like. I just did it. It wasn’t like it was three weeks ago. Watch it again, maybe you’ll find something new in it.

ROGIN: It’s not a judgment, but it’s a little bit of a judgment.

Brent Baker, the Steven P.J. Wood senior fellow and vice president for research and publications at the Media Research Center, explained our pick: “Josh Rogin displayed the reflexive attitude common in the Washington press corps that anyone who does anything which might ‘normalize’ President Donald Trump must be discredited. Bill Maher did a great job, however, of discrediting Rogin’s weak arguments.”

Rating: FOUR out of five screams.