Bill Maher Mocks Trump for Getting Played by China’s Xi Jinping: ‘He Holds the Cards Now’

May 15, 2026 7:35pm PT Bill Maher Mocks Trump for Getting Played by China’s Xi Jinping: ‘He Holds the Cards Now’

By Marlow Stern

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Marlow Stern

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Recent weeks of  “Real Time with Bill Maher” have seen the acerbic comic grill probable Democratic presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom for suing Fox News, comparing the California governor’s litigiousness to Trump, and joking that the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s purported suicide note sounds an awful lot like his good pal Trump.

On Friday night’s edition of his HBO show, Maher focused his monologue on President Trump’s state visit to China, where he met with its country’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing (and Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner, who has faced a number of sexual-misconduct allegations, appeared in photos in the Epstein files, and directed the “Melania” doc, was along for the ride). Trump and Xi “discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between our two countries, including expanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment into our industries,” according to the administration.

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