By Molly Claire Goddard
1:51am PDT, Jun 18, 2025
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Bill Maher got yelled at by an A-lister for meeting with
Donald Trump.
During the Monday, June 16,
episode of the talk show host's "Club Random" podcast, guest
Sean Penn criticized Maher's controversial decision to attend a dinner with the current president in April.
Keep reading to learn about the tense exchange between the comedian and the Oscar winner… MORE:
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While sitting together over drinks and cigarettes, Bill Maher asked
Sean Penn if he made the right decision by visiting Donald Trump at the White House.
"Absolutely, you're so smart, you go there," the
Mystic River actor replied. "Look, this is the President of the United States. Whether we like it or not, it doesn't matter. There's a lot of reasons I was speculating if it would be good for you to do that."
Despite the conversation starting out on a good note, Penn pointed out how he wished Maher's rehashing of the dinner on
Real Time With Bill Maher was "less successful."
"It was less successful because I never stopped saying all the things I've always said about him," the television star spat back. "It would have been successful if he had somehow seduced me into supporting him. So, it wasn't successful."
The movie star noted how he thought there should have been more "editing" on Maher's part about the meeting, suggesting that he could have just said Trump "treated me fine, that's that," instead of praising him.
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Bill Maher went on the attack by questioning
Sean Penn about why he wouldn't sit down with Donald Trump, pointing out the controversial leaders the
Into the Wild filmmaker has met with in the past.
"The only reason I would not accept an invitation is…. it's a long flight," Penn said about not wanting to visit the U.S. leader.
The political commentator was baffled by the answer, adding, "Really, you'll meet with f******
[Fidel] Castro and
Hugo Chavez but not the President of the United States?"
"I saw good results come out of some of those things," Penn claimed. "I just personally wouldn't trust anything that was said in the room including personality."
"It's not a matter of trusting it. It's a matter of seeing it, a matter of experiencing it, knowing it," Maher told him. "I'm telling you, there's a very different guy behind closed doors in a different setting."
When the stand-up star suggested he set up a gathering with Penn and Trump, the
Milk actor shot down the idea.
"I would not fool myself that. If I was going to get anywhere with him," Penn said. "I know that I wouldn't. I know that I would have no influence."
Maher scolded Penn for his "bad attitude" about the situation. "I'll tell you this about Donald Trump and you don't know it because you don't go to dinners. It's all about personal relationships. I will get you an invite. He's a star****** in a way. I bet you he would like to meet you," he added.
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Following Bill Maher's dinner with Donald Trump, which was set up by mutual friend Kid Rock, the Max star let his audience in on how the right-wing leader acts behind closed doors.
"You can h*** me for it, but I'm not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured," he told viewers during the Friday, April 11, episode of Real Time With Bill Maher. "And why isn't that in other settings — I don't know and I can't answer and it's not my place to answer. I'm just telling you what I saw, and I wasn't high."
"Honestly, I voted for [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump," Maher shockingly noted.
