Karoline Leavitt found herself explaining President Donald Trump’s latest White House personnel decision on Bill Maher’s HBO show after her replacement lost the press secretary job following a single 14-minute briefing.
The former White House spokeswoman turned to Trump’s reality television past for an explanation, suggesting that a man whose signature television role involved dismissing contestants was unlikely to hesitate over a staffing change.
Katie Zacharia had spent less than a week as White House press secretary when Trump removed her, a decision Maher questioned during Friday’s *Real Time with Bill Maher* as Leavitt defended the difficulty of the assignment.
“That pressure in that room is enormous,” she explained. “The press are vicious, and you know I give her credit for standing up there.”
Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walks onto Real Time and IMMEDIATELY hits Bill Maher’s audience with a ZINGER after a warm welcome.
Bill Maher: “Don't we have a nice crowd here?”
Karoline Leavitt: “I didn't know I had fans in Communist California, but it's… pic.twitter.com/6TaKspw6qc
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) October 24, 2026
Leavitt accepted Trump’s judgment that Zacharia wasn’t suited to the job, wished her well and pointed to the president’s other possible choices.
“Look, I mean, the president did have a hit show called *The Apprentice*, where he’s known for, you know, moving on from people. So hey, it’s in his nature to do that type of thing, I guess.”
Maher had questioned the speed of the removal with a baseball comparison, observing that managers generally allow pitchers more than one disappointing inning before calling for a replacement.
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The comedian also measured Zacharia’s brief stint against his own recent dinner with Trump, joking that the White House gathering had lasted longer than her employment.
That meal, attended by Maher, Stephen A. Smith and Kid Rock, became another subject of Friday’s conversation.
Maher described a president capable of accepting criticism across the dinner table while continuing to regard his guest as a political adversary.
“We have a nice conversation and he goes, ‘You’re my enemy. Pass the peas,’” he remarked.
The HBO host recalled how the two could disagree personally and politically without allowing the conversation to collapse into hostility.
Maher offered Trump’s response to criticism about the Supreme Court as an example of their ability to disagree without ending the discussion.
He recalled explaining that justices appointed by a president are not supposed to decide cases according to that president’s personal interests.
According to Maher’s recollection, Trump conceded that he had taken the court’s unfavorable decisions too personally.
Their dinner conversation also covered immigration enforcement, Ukraine’s Starlink access and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Maher told the president “is dragging you down.”
“He gets it and then he doesn’t get it. Now I’m an optimist. I prefer to think of the president as half sane,” Maher remarked.
Leavitt rejected the characterization, insisting that Trump was mentally sound and comparing him favorably with his predecessor.
“He’s a lot more, I think we can agree, he is far more sane than the last one. We had a mental patient,” she responded.
Maher acknowledged Trump’s greater energy before questioning how the president might react if Republicans performed poorly in the midterm elections, citing his concerns about retaliation.
Leavitt dismissed those worries and maintained that Trump wanted to improve the country. She also presented his dealings with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser as evidence that he could cooperate with Democrats.
For Leavitt, defending Trump involved more than agreement with his political decisions.
“He was my boss, but to me, he’s also a friend, and he gave me the opportunity of a lifetime,” she explained.
Maher had asked whether anything Trump did could make her reconsider her loyalty, but Leavitt offered no example of a decision that would change her support.
The question was particularly pointed given Maher’s objections to the administration’s decision to relax sanctions on Russia.
He condemned that move as “unconscionable” and characterized Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “basically putting a knife in the back of [Ukraine’s president] Zelensky.”
Leavitt, who is preparing to join Fox News as a commentator, did not identify any circumstance that would cause her to abandon her support for Trump.
Trump’s own reaction to Maher offered a less friendly account of their relationship than the comedian had presented.
In a lengthy Sunday night Truth Social message, the president disputed Maher’s recollection of their White House dinner and accused the comedian of misrepresenting his popularity.
Maher had described a four-hour gathering. Trump insisted the meal occupied no more than approximately two hours, while maintaining that the encounter itself had been pleasant.
“Overall, I thought it was a good meeting,” the president wrote.
He claimed that Maher became friendlier immediately afterward before returning to criticism of his administration.
Trump also maintained that the comedian had repeatedly sought a presidential appearance on HBO’s *Real Time*, an invitation he insisted he would never accept.
The president accused Maher of shaping his television commentary to satisfy an audience opposed to Trump, while also questioning whether the laughter heard during the program was artificially generated.
“Let’s talk about this COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER, Bill Maher. He’s got a Low Rated Show on equally Low Rated HBO,” Trump wrote.
The attack extended to Maher’s discussion of Republican approval ratings. Trump rejected claims that his party’s support was weakening, asserting that a CNN poll showed him receiving 98% or 99% support among Republicans.
🚨WOW! President Trump just BODY SLAMMED Bill Maher in a 1,300-word+ post, telling Maher after their 2nd White House dinner together to SCREW OFF, STOP CALLING:
"I wanted to tell Bill that he’s a major POTHEAD."
"You’re not transformative, you’re a Loser! I never watched your… pic.twitter.com/V9HzLb27ae
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 26, 2026
Those figures were Trump’s characterization of the polling, offered as part of his argument that Maher was misrepresenting his standing within the party.
The public insults came after Trump praised Leavitt’s appearance on the program while deriding Maher’s questioning.
For his part, Maher had already defended his willingness to meet privately with Trump despite criticism from others.
Recalling an earlier dinner in April 2025, the comedian answered those objections with profanity before making his position unmistakable. “I like these dinners,” he remarked.