"My Dinner With Donny"

Thoughts on Real Time with Bill Maher, Apr. 11 2025

Hello readers! Thanks everyone for their patience. It’s been a manic few months, tours, recordings, deadlines and far too much musical activity to get into. My good friend, D Randall Blythe recently paused his Substack subscriptions and I realize, I should have done the same and totally understand if anyone pauses subscribing. However, I’m now easing my way back into written pieces. I’m grateful for everyone’s support paid or not. Instead of waiting until I’ve completed a thousand word +, fully fleshed out essay ( which has not been able to happen lately). I’m going to allow myself to post smaller screeds in the meantime, starting with this one which began as a long comment under comedian Bill Maher’s Facebook post . This morning, a proverbial firestorm is raging there and on all his other social media pages as well. Here are my thoughts:

My theory: Bill is scared and that’s why he went to that dinner. I’m not excusing it. I don’t like it. But I think I understand it.

DJT is already turning into an Erdogan/Orban, seizing control in a similar manner. He’s managed to get the tech titans and much of the entertainment and media worlds to capitulate to his demands. He’s neutered the big law firms. He admires Putin & Xi, and despite any disagreements (ie Ukraine and trade respectively), he continually sings their praises. It could only be a matter of time before he emulates them. In other words, Trump’s perceived enemies start falling out of windows, perishing in plane crashes and vanishing off the streets without a trace - much like we’re already seeing with legal US residents (it likely won’t stop with the immigrants). El Salvador may become to the US what Siberia is to Russia.

So whether he goes full violent autocrat or not, Trump wants our whole country kissing his ass and the option to hold power indefinitely like Putin/Xi. Look no further than Bannon, on the same Real Time episode, all but promising Trump’s next term in 2028. No one in comedy has gone after Trump harder than Bill, despite Right- leaning viewers appreciating his rants about the Left in recent years. Except for the occasional crazy ideologue ie Bannon, Coulter, Kellyane etc (why he has these people on, I don’t know), Bill’s show - despite the occasional stomach-turning guest and his own occasional jackass like behavior - still has some of the smartest, most important conversations on TV about crucial issues affecting all of us.

Again, I don’t like this and am not excusing it. But we don’t know enough to draw conclusions just yet. Sure, maybe it’s what many commenters are accusing Bill of: He’s become a privledged, out of touch, aging “white guy,” drank some Kool-Aid and a Fox cable news show is in his future after his HBO contract runs out. OR… maybe he is pulling a “Prince” ? Remember when Prince caused the whole world to think he’d lost his mind, changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol? It turned out he was righteously fighting for better terms in the music industry, not just for him but for other artists. Soon, he was able to terminate his terrible Warner Bros contract. Then he changed his name back and was “normal” again (by Prince standards, anyway). There was a purpose all along, even though it didn’t make sense at the time.

As far as Bill and the now infamous meal, which should’ve been called “My Dinner with Donny?” (missed opportunity) we don’t know and won’t know for some time. If it becomes “Gutfeld,” I’ll stop watching. But for the above reasons, I’m not done with Bill and Real Time…yet