Maher: Dinner with Trump 'kind of a Nixon to China thing'
Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher compared his upcoming dinner with long-standing foe President Trump to then-President Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972, though Maher said he's heading to the White House with lower expectations.
"I don't have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America; I can't,” Maher told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo on Friday's episode of "The Chris Cuomo Project" podcast. "OK, let's get that clear. I'm not going to be healing America.
"If two guys who've been at each other for so long. … I mean, it's kind of a Nixon to China thing."
At the time of Nixon's trip, the U.S. and Beijing had not had diplomatic relations for 25 years, and it was seen as a sign of thawing relations. Nixon, a World War II veteran and staunch opponent of communism, met with Chinese Communist Party leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai during the visit — a meeting widely seen as opening a new era in China's economic engagement with the West.
Maher and Trump have been adversaries for decades, as well.
“There was nobody who was harder on Trump or more prescient about the fact that he wasn't going to leave office voluntarily than I was,” Maher said.
Trump sued Maher in 2013 for $5 million after Maher made a crass joke about Trump's mother and an orangutan. The suit was later dropped.
Maher first revealed during his podcast over the weekend that musician Kid Rock, who is Trump's friend and supporter, arranged for the two to break bread at the White House.
It's unclear when the dinner will take place, but Maher said he sees it as an opportunity to have an open dialogue, if not clear the air.
"Let's talk to each other face to face. Let's not stop shouting from 3,000 miles away, you know?" he said.
"If they expect me to be leaving in a MAGA hat, they're going to be very disappointed, but I know they don't," Maher continued. "Look, it probably will accomplish very little, but you got to try, man, you got to try."
He said he already has faced backlash from some who expected him to reject Trump's dinner invite.
"First of all, it's an honor to be invited to the White House," he said. “The idea that little Bill Maher from River Vale, N.J. — just a humble kid from the suburb — was invited for a private dinner at the White House.”
Beyond being a vocal Trump critic, Maher said he thinks that they share a mutual dislike of "woke" efforts from the left.
"I'm honest about the 'woke' train to crazy town, and I don't shrink from that," Maher told Cuomo, the host of NewsNation's "CUOMO."
"I've also lost a lot of fans for that … it does give you a certain credibility."