The longest social media tirade of President Donald Trump’s career never touched his own keyboard — he spoke every word of it aloud in the air.
Trump, 80, dictated the post — more than 1,300 words aimed at comedian Bill Maher, 70 — to executive assistant Natalie Harp, 35, who typed it out aboard Air Force One, and the Truth Social screed went live Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.
The post appeared shortly after the president’s return to the White House, and the in-flight dictation settles a question that had been open since it landed. Hosts of the podcast “Pod Save America” floated the theory that Harp was taking the president’s words down as he read them aloud. They were right.
Lee Greenwood and Friends
Maher set the whole thing off two days earlier. On Friday, Oct. 23, his HBO show “Real Time” hosted former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 29, and his monologue turned in part to the president’s standing inside his own party — including a joke that the signs outside Trump’s rallies now advertise “Lee Greenwood and Friends.”
Maher also complained that four hours of dinner at the White House produced not a single compliment for him, then aimed a jab at the president’s praise of Sen. Jon Husted. “It’s just a little odd that Trump keeps gushing about men’s bodies—and how handsome they are, and their jawlines, and their a–es, their physiques. I’m a little hurt,” Maher said.
Ten Calls Before the Second Dinner
Trump opened the post by branding Maher a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER,” the capital letters his own, and dismissed “Real Time” as a low-rated show on a network that, in his telling, had long ago stopped being hot. He turned next to Chuck LaBella, the longtime producer who works with Maher on the podcast “Club Random,” writing that LaBella had been a “gofer” on NBC’s “The Apprentice” and had phoned 10 times before the second dinner was arranged.
His own first reaction to the pitch, he wrote: “Fellas, this guy’s a Goofball.” He instructed Maher to stop calling and told LaBella to ease up too.
Trump disputed Maher’s four-hour math, insisting the dinner ran two hours or less and saying “everybody was happy.” He claimed the White House had timestamps to prove it. He said he learned nothing from an evening he called “a waste of time,” labeled Maher a “major POTHEAD,” said the comedian toured the White House with a drink in hand and was drunk, and added that he “looked like hell this time.”
He rejected Maher’s read on his approval numbers, citing CNN polling that he said put his support within the Republican Party at 98% to 99%, against the 86% he said Ronald Reagan drew. He stood by his endorsements, argued with Maher over Iran and said the comedian had lied about illegal voting in California. He insisted he never planned a pool for the press briefing room, though he is weighing moving reporters out and putting the room to other use. He praised Leavitt’s “Real Time” appearance and described her questioner as a “biased, dumb SLEAZEBAG.”
Trump told Maher to switch off his “Laugh Machine,” said he would ask Republicans to stop covering him and closed with a vow never to watch the show again, dismissing it as “FAKE NEWS.”
The Only Reason This Race Is Close
Maher was not the only target in the same Sunday post. Trump attacked Fox News — “That’s the only reason this race is close, if it is indeed close” — branded Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a “Jihadist member of the Muslim Brotherhood” and re-upped his endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu, all days before the midterm elections.
“I’m Just Glad We’re Talking”
The two men had a relationship before the feud. Kid Rock set up their first White House meal in late March 2025, and Maher spoke warmly about the president on his show afterward; Trump later attacked him anyway and said the evening had not been worth his time. The Kennedy Center Board honored Maher with the Mark Twain Prize in June 2026.
On the Oct. 12 episode of “Club Random,” Maher described the invitation back as coming “out of the blue,” quoting Trump as telling him, “I promise I won’t say bad things about you like I did the last time.” Maher said he texted back: “You know what? You’re the president of the United States. Say whatever the f— you want. I’m just glad we’re talking.”
Maher returned to the White House on Oct. 15 alongside Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock, and bragged about the invitation. Trump told reporters that Maher “likes me a lot more than people understand,” and that the feeling was mutual. The goodwill did not survive the monologue.