Over the last several years, Real Time with Bill Maher fans have been fascinated to watch how the show's host has talked about the current and former President, Donald Trump. While Maher has regularly welcomed Trump's critics on his show, he has also called out his detractors for going too far and regularly had conversations with supporters. As a result of the things that Maher has said about Trump, he has even needed to clarify his political party at times.
While Maher has been more open to Trump than most of his peers, there is also no doubt that he regularly mocks the President on his show. In some cases, Maher has made some truly surprising remarks about the President. One recent example of that is the fact that Maher just compared Trump to Taylor Swift for a very specific reason.
Why Bill Maher compared Donald Trump to Taylor Swift explained
On October 18, 2025, many of Donald Trump's most vocal detractors gathered in a wide array of different cities for what were called "No Kings" protests. One of the inspirations for those protests was the claim that Trump has been having his appointees in the Justice Department investigate and prosecute his political enemies. Trump's detractors believe those alleged actions are evidence that Trump wants to rule like a king.
On October 17, 2025, the Instagram account for Real Time with Bill Maher published a video of the host discussing allegations that Trump has been using the Justice Department to target his political foes. That video, which was also published on Maher's personal Instagram account, featured the footage of Maher comparing Trump to Taylor Swift.
"Comey’s indicted. Letitia James: indicted. Now, John Bolton, his former national security advisor — who wrote a book about him, not a good idea — he’s indicted. Trump is going after everyone that ever pissed him off. He’s like an authoritarian Taylor Swift. It’s amazing."
As the above video shows, Maher compared the idea of Trump going after his enemies to Swift's history of writing demeaning songs about her exes. To Maher's point, a Grazia Daily article from April 2024 listed 23 of Swift's songs that were believed to be about her exes.
An August 2025 Billboard article that chronicled what Trump has said or posted about Swift in the past. Based on some of his past statements and posts, it seems like Trump may not appreciate being compared to the singer.