Donald Trump, Bill Maher and Gavin Newsom clashed again on 1 May in Los Angeles when a tense interview on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher prompted Trump to revive his long-running feud with the comedian and attack the California governor online within hours.
The latest clash followed Newsom's in-studio appearance on Real Time, where Maher pressed the Democrat on his confrontational political style and his decision to sue Fox News. The interview was already generating headlines before Trump intervened, in part because Maher and Newsom have typically been closer allies than adversaries and rarely appear at odds in public.
The segment turned sharper when Maher suggested Newsom was edging into Trump territory. Raising the governor's high‑profile media battles and online persona, Maher told him that among the politicians who might one day seek the White House, Newsom was 'the one who kind of imitates his style with the trolling' and pointed to his lawsuit against Fox as an example.
Donald Trump Reignites Bill Maher Feud as Comedian Pulls Gavin Newsom Into Late-Night Crossfire https://t.co/5xLwNlJbbV pic.twitter.com/smMb9TQBEq
— OK! Magazine USA (@OKMagazine) May 6, 2026
Newsom answered that 'Fox better look to settle right now or apologise for defamation,' a line that prompted Maher to remark that it sounded 'exactly' like Trump's own habit of suing media organisations.
It was an uncomfortable exchange, not least because Maher has long cast himself as a liberal sceptic of Trump while often giving Newsom a comparatively friendly platform. This time, he challenged the governor's reliance on social media theatrics and combative rhetoric, questioning whether the tactics he criticises in Trump are now being mirrored by Democrats who say they oppose him.
Newsom did not retreat from the charge. He argued that his tone and tactics are deliberate, saying he is 'trying to put a mirror up to Donald Trump' and to 'reflect that reality and express the absurdity of all of this.' It was an attempt to present his confrontational posture as commentary on Trumpism rather than imitation of it, though Maher's visible unease suggested he felt the distinction was narrowing.
Trump Seizes on Maher–Newsom Tension
If there was any doubt that Trump was watching, it did not last long. After the programme aired, the president used social media to mock both Maher and Newsom, reframing the HBO interview as proof that Maher is weak and that Newsom went unchallenged.
In one post, Trump claimed Maher had been 'eaten up' by 'Gavin Newscum' and insisted the host 'never challenged him, not even a little bit.' He then pivoted to Maher's audience figures, declaring that his 'Ratings SUCK!' and expanding the critique to conservative outlets that occasionally invite Maher on air.
🚨Trump fires off at Bill Maher over his exchange with Newsom, saying Maher didn’t push back and blasting his ratings.
— Taylor William Lucas (@Taylor_LU_WILL) May 4, 2026
He’s not holding back.
Media and politics colliding again.
This one’s getting loud. pic.twitter.com/gML3mzVg2G
'Fox should stop putting this person on. He's not representing us. You look weak, stupid and ineffective,' Trump wrote in another message, treating any association with Maher as a kind of ideological betrayal. The implication was clear enough. In his view, simply giving Gavin Newsom time to defend himself is tantamount to siding against Trump and his supporters.
There is an obvious tension here. The Real Time interview drew attention precisely because Maher did push Newsom on uncomfortable ground, interrogating his legal fight with Fox and his reliance on what Maher cast as Trump‑style trolling. Trump's characterisation of the segment as a soft‑ball chat sits at odds with the friction visible on screen, but it fits a broader pattern in which the president often measures interviews by loyalty rather than by the questions asked.
Late-Night Exchange Fuels Political Media Cycle
The latest flare-up illustrates how a relatively short late-night exchange can now live several lives. Real Time remains, on paper, a comedy-politics talk show. In practice, moments such as Maher's criticism of Newsom's 'all-caps' social media posts and legal threats are clipped, shared and reframed across partisan platforms, each time stripped a little further of nuance.
Trump's intervention accelerates that cycle. By denouncing Maher and ridiculing Newsom, he pulls what might have remained a niche media-world argument into the centre of his own political theatre. Supporters are invited to see Maher as hostile, Fox News as unreliable for airing him at all, and Newsom as another enemy borrowing from Trump's tactics while claiming to oppose him.
Trump fumed as Fox News praised Maher’s interview with Gavin Newsom.
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 3, 2026
https://t.co/MKLkbsPX3i
For Newsom, who is widely discussed as a possible contender for the 2028 presidential race, the exchange is both risk and opportunity. Being likened to Trump on style is hardly a compliment among many Democratic voters, yet the governor clearly believes that a more aggressive, social‑media‑driven approach is necessary to cut through a noisy political environment. His argument that he is 'holding up a mirror' to Trump may reassure some, but it also locks him into the very combative mode he says he is critiquing.
Maher, meanwhile, continues to occupy an awkward middle lane. He presents himself as an irritant to both right and left, and his interrogation of Newsom was consistent with that brand. Yet the reaction from Trump shows how little tolerance there is in some quarters for any forum that allows opponents to speak at length, even under questioning. In that sense, the dust‑up says as much about the media ecosystem as it does about the three men at its centre.
What is not in doubt is that nothing fundamentally changed for any of them. Maher remains a comedian‑host walking a line between entertainment and scrutiny. Newsom remains a Democrat trying to build a national profile without being trapped in Trump's shadow. And Trump remains acutely alert to any broadcast, joke or aside that touches on his name, ready to turn even a single late‑night segment into another skirmish in a feud that never really ends.
