Bill Maher has come in for tons of criticism since he opted to have dinner with Donald Trump, but none of it was as biting as a recent takedown by “Seinfeld” creator Larry David.
In an essay for the New York Times called “My Dinner With Adolf,” David took Maher to task for attempting to soften the image of a fascist strongman. While David never mentions the “Real Time” host by name, the timing of the piece and its main character’s need to hear out all sides past the point of ludicrousness make the target clear.
David’s fictional meeting with Adolf Hitler echoes many of the points that Maher has made in the days since he dined with Trump. Maher, a crochety liberal-leaning comic who has grown more crochety and less liberal as societal norms have passed him by, marvelled at the fact that he could make the commander-in-chief laugh.
I want Bernie to read this all out loud on the Senate floor.
Paywalled, but here is the piece:
Imagine my surprise when in the spring of 1939 a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world’s most reviled man, Adolf Hitler. I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. “He’s Hitler. He’s a monster.” But eventually I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.
Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room, where a few of the Führer’s most vocal supporters had gathered: Himmler, Göring, Leni Riefenstahl and the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. We talked about some of the beautiful art on the walls that had been taken from the homes of Jews. But our conversation ended abruptly when we heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room.
He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back. I found the whole thing quite disarming. I joked that I was surprised to see him in a tan suit because if he wore that out, it would be perceived as un-Führer-like. That amused him to no end, and I realized I’d never seen him laugh before. Suddenly he seemed so human. Here I was, prepared to meet Hitler, the one I’d seen and heard — the public Hitler. But this private Hitler was a completely different animal. And oddly enough, this one seemed more authentic, like this was the real Hitler. The whole thing had my head spinning.
He said he was starving and led us into the dining room, where he gestured for me to sit next to him. Göring immediately grabbed a slice of pumpernickel, whereupon Hitler turned to me, gave me an eye roll, then whispered, “Watch. He’ll be done with his entire meal before you’ve taken two bites.” That one really got me. Göring, with his mouth full, asked what was so funny, and Hitler said, “I was just telling him about the time my dog had diarrhea in the Reichstag.” Göring remembered. How could he forget? He loved that story, especially the part where Hitler shot the dog before it got back into the car. Then a beaming Hitler said, “Hey, if I can kill Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals, I can certainly kill a dog!” That perhaps got the biggest laugh of the night — and believe me, there were plenty.
But it wasn’t just a one-way street, with the Führer dominating the conversation. He was quite inquisitive and asked me a lot of questions about myself. I told him I had just gone through a brutal breakup with my girlfriend because every time I went someplace without her, she was always insistent that I tell her everything I talked about. I can’t stand having to remember every detail of every conversation. Hitler said he could relate — he hated that, too. “What am I, a secretary?” He advised me it was best not to have any more contact with her or else I’d be right back where I started and eventually I’d have to go through the whole thing all over again. I said it must be easy for a dictator to go through a breakup. He said, “You’d be surprised. There are still feelings.” Hmm … there are still feelings. That really resonated with me. We’re not that different, after all. I thought that if only the world could see this side of him, people might have a completely different opinion.
Two hours later, the dinner was over, and the Führer escorted me to the door. “I am so glad to have met you. I hope I’m no longer the monster you thought I was.” “I must say, mein Führer, I’m so thankful I came. Although we disagree on many issues, it doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other.” And with that, I gave him a Nazi salute and walked out into the night.
Ugh, my mom was telling me how great it was for Bill Maher to meet with Trump. I told her humanizing Trump wasn’t gonna help anyone, but she insisted it was great.
i watch Real Time with Bill Maher regularly and watched his monologue about his meeting with Trump (it disgusted me). this essay is beautiful because it hits many of the same points Maher made and i just know that Bill must be embarrassed and livid.
Bill Maher owes us all (his viewers) an apology. but of course we will never get it.
I stopped watching Maher when I realized all the anti-religous humor was soley directed at Catholics and Jews and he reserved actual vitriol for Muslims. Then the mean spirited dismissive language about women and just constantly talking over them. And then he got twitter…
This is a work of art, genius level.
And will go completely over the head of almost every average American.
“Wait, I don’t get it…” They will say as they read the ChatGTP summary, which will be shorter and easier to read. “Is Hitler still alive then? Why did this guy have dinner with him? What does this mean? So like, Hitler ain’t so bad?”
They will try to ask these questions on Reddit or Facebook but the question will get shadowbanned because the topic is too controversial for advertisers. Or the only ones who answer will be bots programmed to deliver specific replies.
Doesn’t seem like the popular the American writter’s piece, written sarcastically in their familiar voice, published in the popular American newspaper is going to go completely over everyones head.
Archive just because
Awe thank you for this!
I was watching a clip of Tarantino talking with Maher, he was telling him about how he thinks Toy Story is one of the best trilogies and how much he loves Toy Story, and bill maher interrupts with “this Toy Story is a cartoon?”
Like how pretentious do you have to be to pretend you don’t know what Toy Story is? Those are the kinda things that make Bill Maher insufferable, that he strives to be a pretentious fuck who thinks he’s smarter than everyone
That has been his persona for over two decades.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bill Maher is the definition of smarmy. He personifies the concept of that smug asshole who pretends to not know common media because he thinks it makes him appear more dignified. When in reality it just makes him look like an idiot to anyone who doesn’t buy his act.
“So, you’re saying this Taylor Swift can make a fine frock fast…?”
Kinda proud I don’t get this…
Seems to be name based wordplay. Taylor -> Tailor, Swift -> Fast. Why would you you be proud you don’t get it?
No.
My awesome alliteration is always above an asinine’s ability to assimilate.
How long since you’ve seen Seldom?
Yeah! I dunno what a Taylor Swift is either…
Edit: fat thumbs = ? not !
Larry David’s humor is perfect for this. what a mensch.
sort of über in mein opinion
I’m a life long New Yorker. Donald Trump was also born and raised in New York.
I can tell you that getting 90 percent of New Yorkers to agree on anything is an amazing feat. You couldn’t get 90% of New Yorkers to say something nice about the Yankees, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or Central Park.
Donald Trump lost his home town by 90% of the vote.
Yup.
Fuck the Yankees. Let’s go Mets! 😜
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had MAGA Morons tell me that HitlerPig has always been worshipped in NYC, even claiming that he’s ALWAYS been the “King Of New York City.”
I’ve always told them that its obvious that theyve never set foot in NYC, nor ever spoken to a New Yorker, because there isnt a single person who would ever have a good thing to say about him. He has been reviled since he first became a public figure.
Literally EVERYONE in NYC despises him.
It cuts across all classes. The truly rich despise him. When he was building his Tower, he had a golden opportunity to preserve the original building. This was at a time when Jackie Kennedy was pushing to keep the classic NYC buildings safe. Even his own architect told him to keep the old façade and build around it. Instead he demolished it AFTER he’d promised not to. Then there was the time he brought the Plaza Hotel and had to sell at a huge loss because he couldn’t finance it. And that’s not even half of what I could tell…
Oh, I’m well aware.
The destruction of that building facade was even worse than that. When it became clear that he wouldn’t preserve the facade, there were many that were willing to pay to remove iconic architectural/ 1sculptural elements and send them to museums, but he ordered his construction crew to simply destroy them.
As a person whose job partially consists of brand marketing, I see that as a great marketing opportunity for his brand image that he absolutely blew. He could have played along, let those architectural elements be removed to museums on someone else’s dime, as he stood out front, bloviating to the media that he is so proud to be the leader in preserving the iconic architectural history of the great city that he loves so much, and improving his standing with the city and its citizens. Instead, it was just “Fuck it, just destroy it all.”
And yeah, I’m well aware of his past, like his demand that the “Central Park Five” be executed, and when they were fully exonerated of the crime, he STILL insisted they be executed. It was then that I knew this psychopath could never be allowed to hold public office.
Now he’s sending innocent people to a torture gulag in a 3rd world country without Due Process, and people are surprised that he won’t lift a finger to correct their “administrative mistakes.” History rhymes again.
Good article that details the whole story.
As an added bonus, John Baron makes a cameo
John Baron is good friends with Ron Varo.
Ron Varo.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/04/09/peter-navarro-pseudonym-ron-vara/
This shit is turning my hair white.
Just when you think that they can’t top Four Seasons Landscaping, they strap on a jet pack.
What was the name of the original building so I can look it up?
Here’s an entire article, including Trump using Polish immigrant workers like slaves, and a guest appearance by John Baron
amazing what happens when you get to know a nazi on a deep level. see how petty, small, and dangerous they are
The other part of the story is that a pollster told people that Trump was hated in his hometown and MAGats loved it. The same people who watch TV and movies made in NYC; who buy everything Madison Avenue advertises; who accept New York fashion sense without question, seem to hate New York.
Same with California. They watch all the movies and TV shows produced here, buy all the tech Silicon Valley develops, and hate us.
Not to mention take our tax dollars for their welfare states.
i know. it’s the rural/urban divide the capitalist class has used to divide us for as long as we’ve told stories about the subjugation of the people to the will of the kings, emperors, and pharoahs. they convince the rural worker they have nothing in common with those high fallutin’ city folk that benefit from the fruits of the farmer’s labor. never mind that the city folk are just as destitute as the rural folk, and are simply trying to survive their material conditions as well. the rural worker hates the taxes they pay, and sees construction in the city and thinks their money is being funneled to benefit the urban worker. the truth is though that the capitalist would stop maintaining the city immediately, but it’s cheaper for them to keep making sure the city folk don’t revolt from strictly necessary aspects of city life to maintain their workforce of cleaners, cooks, and planners.
but none of this stops the capitalist from funding propaganda to tell the field worker it’s the city’s fault they’re poor.
it’s all a great big joke when you peel back the layers. a painful, cruel, and twisted joke
To your point about where the capitalist would spend money it’s actually the other way around. Capitalists hate the countryside, and nothing makes it more obvious than the shitty state of internet and package delivery. It costs way too much money to lay a mile of high-speed cable just so two families can pay not-even-that-much for an internet plan. USPS is and Canada Post are crucial services because of how badly the private parcel companies don’t want to serve rural communities.
oh i know. i’m speaking on this as a rural citizen who’s seen how my neighbors are manipulated. per capita, rural tax payers get more back from their taxes as benefits than city dwellers. the rural voter sees that it’s not enough though and seeths with anger. being isolated by the land around them, they’re easier to manipulate into blaming someone in an apartment than in a penthouse or mansion. the best way to resist fascism is to go out into the world and talk to people. the rural voters who fuel fascism are less able to do this thanks to their material conditions, making them more vulnerable to bullshit propaganda. urban voters meanwhile, are not immune to fascism, but are far more likely to encounter perspectives other than their own by the nature of their lived experience in a large community.
the most terrifying in all this are the suburbs. the places where people actively choose to tune out of being connected in favor of a 1950s vision of america that would be easier to manipulate a la brave new world and 1984 into working against their own best interests.
fuck. i’m gonna have to go listen to nazi by chumbawamba now…
Well put. And oh the suburbs, where the greatest argument always seems to be centered around how much they hate their neighbours and believe that a cut lawn in a development is closer to nature than a full, grown back alley with maybe even a small community garden(fairly common in the major city where I live).
Something you don’t hear much about is the death of the ‘small town rich.’
Back in the day, a town would have a local bank and a local newspaper. The factory owners kids would go to the local high school. Sure they were capitalists, but they saw the town as their home. Those days are over. Even if a rich person lives in the town, they send their kids to a private school and would love to move out.
The locals can go hang.
They definitely do not hate the countryside. They just want it for themselves.
rural people/conservatives are so brainwashed most of the tax moneys paid by blue states go to red and rural areas.
100%. i’m only trying to explain how the brainwashing works and why it’s effective. to combat it you must be aware of its mechanisms
Has there ever been a person elected president who has so convincingly lost their home district/state? Besides Trump 2016 and Trump 2024, that is.
“Favorite son” has been a standard American politics term for decades.
When Rudy Giuliani won in his second term, he was considered a massive winner, and he got less than 60% of the vote.
Harris won nowhere near 90% of NYC. The city itself voted 68/30 for Harris/Trump. Manhattan hit 80% as the “bluest” borough. Staten Island and Hasidic Brooklyn voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_New_York
https://abc7ny.com/election-2016-nyc-results-president/1598306/
In 2016 Trump lost by 80%. So I was a bit off.
hes park avenue new york, the rich part of ny, not the rest of the “plebs” he hates.
No. He’s from the borough of Queens. He always tried to get in good with the real Manhattan elites, and was always shot down. In fact, at the start, he only got a little fame because his first wife, Ivana, was really glamourous. He was just the guy who carried her bags.
haha, just like hes carrying putins bags right now.
Been carrying them since the 1980s.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842/
Bill Maher is a textbook reactionary centrist: he’d sell out any minority for the sake of his own influence and pocketbook.
From the constant digs on trans people to the time he was ready to scab (until it became clear that it would diminish his influence), he’d step on every person he views as beneath him to get powerful people to think he’s smart.
And he’s not half as smart as he thinks he is— he ends up platforming the absolute worst people and letting them run rhetorical circles around him.
I genuinely liked how he brought Bill Burr on there and tried to act like he was smarter than Bill Burr, who rightfully called him out on his bullshit.
His recent interview on Pod Save America was so off putting, so filled with his own narcissism, that I simply couldn’t finish listening to the interview. There was little of substance there; just a very out of touch very rich guy loving the smell of his own shit.
I don’t listen to the show very much, but I was tempted out of masochistic curiosity.
Dude is like a boomer Joe Rogan— he buys into the dumbest bullshit because he thinks being a contrarian is a cheat code for the truth.
Wait. The “we get it. We happily moved to the right like we always do, and we totally get it, that sucks, but…” podcast had the only person other than Joe Manchin that typifies all they have ever been about as a guest?
How many ads per ep are they up to by now? 20? 30?
or get stupid people thinking hes smart, republicans are the only that agrees with him
For those interested here is the letter.
It is a good read and not that long.
i watch Real Time with Bill Maher regularly and watched his monologue about his meeting with Trump (it disgusted me). this essay is beautiful because it hits many of the same points Maher made and i just know that Bill must be embarrassed and livid.
Bill Maher owes us all (his viewers) an apology. but of course we will never get it.
Text for those that do not have nytimes subscription
Larry David: My Dinner With Adolf
Imagine my surprise when in the spring of 1939 a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world’s most reviled man, Adolf Hitler. I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. “He’s Hitler. He’s a monster.” But eventually I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.
Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room, where a few of the Führer’s most vocal supporters had gathered: Himmler, Göring, Leni Riefenstahl and the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. We talked about some of the beautiful art on the walls that had been taken from the homes of Jews. But our conversation ended abruptly when we heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room.
He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back. I found the whole thing quite disarming. I joked that I was surprised to see him in a tan suit because if he wore that out, it would be perceived as un-Führer-like. That amused him to no end, and I realized I’d never seen him laugh before. Suddenly he seemed so human. Here I was, prepared to meet Hitler, the one I’d seen and heard — the public Hitler. But this private Hitler was a completely different animal. And oddly enough, this one seemed more authentic, like this was the real Hitler. The whole thing had my head spinning.
He said he was starving and led us into the dining room, where he gestured for me to sit next to him. Göring immediately grabbed a slice of pumpernickel, whereupon Hitler turned to me, gave me an eye roll, then whispered, “Watch. He’ll be done with his entire meal before you’ve taken two bites.” That one really got me. Göring, with his mouth full, asked what was so funny, and Hitler said, “I was just telling him about the time my dog had diarrhea in the Reichstag.” Göring remembered. How could he forget? He loved that story, especially the part where Hitler shot the dog before it got back into the car. Then a beaming Hitler said, “Hey, if I can kill Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals, I can certainly kill a dog!” That perhaps got the biggest laugh of the night — and believe me, there were plenty.
But it wasn’t just a one-way street, with the Führer dominating the conversation. He was quite inquisitive and asked me a lot of questions about myself. I told him I had just gone through a brutal breakup with my girlfriend because every time I went someplace without her, she was always insistent that I tell her everything I talked about. I can’t stand having to remember every detail of every conversation. Hitler said he could relate — he hated that, too. “What am I, a secretary?” He advised me it was best not to have any more contact with her or else I’d be right back where I started and eventually I’d have to go through the whole thing all over again. I said it must be easy for a dictator to go through a breakup. He said, “You’d be surprised. There are still feelings.” Hmm … there are still feelings. That really resonated with me. We’re not that different, after all. I thought that if only the world could see this side of him, people might have a completely different opinion.
Two hours later, the dinner was over, and the Führer escorted me to the door. “I am so glad to have met you. I hope I’m no longer the monster you thought I was.” “I must say, mein Führer, I’m so thankful I came. Although we disagree on many issues, it doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other.” And with that, I gave him a Nazi salute and walked out into the night.
i watch Real Time with Bill Maher regularly and watched his monologue about his meeting with Trump (it disgusted me). this essay is beautiful because it hits many of the same points Maher made and i just know that Bill must be embarrassed and livid.
Bill Maher owes us all (his viewers) an apology. but of course we will never get it.
Very helpful of you thank you. I even have a subscription and is just easier to read it here, ha. Many thanks.
Is there a non-paywall/no-sub version anywhere? Maybe paste here?
That was quick. Cheers!
A bit ironic that he wrote it in/for the NYT, the Bill Maher of newspapers.
As a non-native this is a remarkably helpful analogy.
It’s more the Harvey Weinstein or the Nancy Pelosi of newspapers.
This is a play on “My dinner with Andre” which I have yet to watch: https://youtu.be/ccXU7s694kg
neither Andre 3000 or Eric Andre are in this film for anyone getting excited
Everybody knows it stars Andre the Giant, because it’s fun to watch that guy eat.
Tell me more
All of this political commentary means nothing. Personally, the political opinion of a famous person is worth dog crap.
the political opinion of a famous person is worth dog crap
no?! because they have influence
Shit yeah they do, there’s a reality TV guy who used to do bit parts in movies in the oval office!
Ronald Reagan? The actor?
