The White House has U-turned on its denial of reports that Bill Maher would receive a prestigious Kennedy Center award, insisting that its comments were right at the time.
The comedian will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in a ceremony to be aired on Netflix in June. The Atlantic first reported the news last week, though officials at the time blasted the report as “fake news.”
“This is fake news,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the outlet. “Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award.” Communications Director Steven Cheung added: “Literally FAKE NEWS.”
Now the White House says it will happen after all.
“This was false reporting at the time of the Atlantic’s reporting, but the situation changed after further conversations took place between the Trump-Kennedy Center and event organizers over the past week,” a government spokesperson said.
Kennedy Center officials were expected to announce the news officially later Thursday, with the ceremony due to be one of the last public events before the institution shuts down for two years for renovations at Trump’s direction.
The president has come under fire for his intervention in the center’s affairs, already having ordered it renamed the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” which has prompted many performances to be cancelled and legal action to be launched.
“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center's vice president of public relations, said in a statement shared with The Associated Press.
“For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse — one politically incorrect joke at a time.”
In a separate statement Maher said: “Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win.”
“I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”
Previous recipients of the prize include Maher’s fellow talk show hosts David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, Eddie Murphy, Kevin Hart and Adam Sandler.
Maher and Trump have enjoyed a tumultuous relationship, with the comedian describing the president as “gracious and measured” after attending a dinner at the White House with him in 2025.
However, in a post on Truth Social last month, Trump turned on Maher, calling him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT,” adding that “it was a total waste of time for me to have this jerk at the White House.”
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