Bill Maher, the 70-year-old comedian behind HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” devoted part of his August 28, 2026, program to retracting something he had said about President Donald Trump’s endorsement record — a correction that came after the 80-year-old president texted him personally to challenge it.
Seven days earlier, on his August 21 broadcast, Maher had informed his audience that the president once went undefeated on his endorsements and was now barely winning any of them. As it happened, the remark landed in front of the one viewer least inclined to let it pass.
On air, Maher explained that a viewer had taken serious offense at the line and had reached out to him personally — then wasted little time making clear that the viewer was the president. The two exchange text messages, Maher said, and he is glad they do, because he would rather have communication. Trump, according to Maher, responded with charts and a pile of information, and Maher had pledged to say so on the air if his own claim failed to hold up.
It did not. Maher concluded the president was right. “I did overstate it,” Maher said, telling viewers that what he had asserted a week earlier was simply untrue and wondering aloud whether it was really so hard to avoid being a jerk about everything.
The Numbers Behind the Retraction
The statistics Maher recited on air originated with Trump’s own accounting: of the 260 candidates he has endorsed this election cycle, only nine have been beaten in their primaries — a 97 percent success rate. Maher granted the point, telling his audience that Trump’s endorsements are still very powerful.
Wider tallies fall in roughly the same territory. In all, Trump has issued 313 endorsements and prevailed in 96 percent of them, though a share of those wins came from incumbents who drew no challenger. Trump himself boasts of a perfect 100 percent record in Senate primaries and 98 percent in House races. On Truth Social, he has pushed the claim further still, asserting a 99 percent endorsement success rate and calling it the strongest endorsement record in political history.
Maher did not abandon his broader thesis altogether. His argument, he said, concerned the trend line, which he sees heading downward, and he pointed to five governorships Trump lost. Drawing on CNN figures, Maher noted that Republican voters have rejected 10 Trump-endorsed statewide candidates this primary season — as many as were defeated across the 2018, 2020 and 2024 primaries combined.
He weighed both columns of the ledger, too. By Maher’s account, Trump contends that some of his defeats come from loyally backing candidates who were doomed anyway, and Maher said he does not doubt that part of that is true. Even so, Maher argued, the president inflates the figure by choosing easy winners, among them incumbents and contenders facing little or no opposition.
South Carolina and Oklahoma Wins
Maher cited two recent contests as proof that Trump’s political muscle remains intact where it counts. In South Carolina, 62-year-old Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, captured the Republican Senate runoff over Rep. Ralph Norman, having taken the seat after her brother’s unexpected death. With characteristic bluntness, Maher called her Lindsey Graham’s know-nothing sister — then conceded that Trump is still a star when he turns up in a place like that, and that voters come out for him.
In Oklahoma, Trump’s pick, Mike Mazzei, squeaked out a primary victory. Maher wrapped up his revised stance by saying the full picture is more complicated than his original line allowed — but that, yes, he had overstated it. The correction unfolded during a roundtable discussion that featured Rep. Byron Donalds.
Trump Escalates With NBC
Maher’s apology amounts to one front in a wider campaign the president is waging against journalists who describe his endorsement record as anything short of dominant. Trump has called for NBC “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker to be rebuked or punished after she said, during a pre-show appearance on Washington’s local NBC station, that his endorsement results have been mixed. On Truth Social, Trump labeled her remark a “purposeful inaccuracy” and urged Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr to take seriously what he described as a threat to the country. NBC has publicly backed Welker, who has anchored the program since 2023, calling her one of the best in the business. The president’s FCC complaint came as the Maher clip circulated widely online.
The Maher-Trump dynamic has been volatile for years. Maher drew criticism in March 2025 for a private dinner with Trump at the White House, after which he described the president as gracious and measured. The two have traded jabs on social media and television on and off since, with Maher alternating between praise and ridicule before eventually raising a white flag on the feud. On June 28, 2026, Maher accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor during a ceremony at Washington’s Kennedy Center.
For all the concessions, Maher kept the last word. Having granted the math, defended the open line to the president and delivered his correction on the air as promised, he closed the segment with a one-line request aimed squarely at the White House: stop texting.