Bill Maher will win the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain humor prize
following White House denial
[March 27, 2026]
By STEVEN SLOAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bill Maher will win the prestigious Mark Twain Prize
for American Humor, the Kennedy Center said Thursday, less than a week
after the White House forcefully denied that the comedian, who has had a
hot-and-cold relationship with President Donald Trump, would win it.
“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of
the greatest minds in comedy,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center's vice
president of public relations, said in a statement. “For even longer,
Bill has been influencing American discourse — one politically incorrect
joke at a time.”
Maher said in a statement that he “just had the award explained to me,
and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win.”
After The Atlantic reported last week that Maher would win the award,
the White House pushed back hard. White House communications director
Steven Cheung said on social media that the story was “literally FAKE
NEWS.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also called the
initial report “fake news” and said Maher “will NOT be getting this
award.”
An administration official who refused to speak on the record about the
award on Thursday said the situation changed after further conversations
between the Kennedy Center and event organizers.
The Kennedy Center has presented the award since 1998 as a way to
recognize those who have made significant contributions to humor and
commentary in the United States. Previous winners include Conan O'Brien,
Dave Chappelle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Letterman, Carol Burnett and
Tina Fey.
The award will be presented on June 28, just before Trump plans to close
the Kennedy Center for renovations expected to last about two years.
Since returning to office, the Republican president has wielded
tremendous influence over the venue, ousting its previous leadership and
replacing it with a handpicked board of trustees that named him
chairman.
The board added Trump's name to the Kennedy Center and approved the
closure, actions that have prompted legal proceedings that are ongoing.
Maher and the president have long had a fraught relationship.
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Bill Maher arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March
15, 2026, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles.
(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
 Before he entered politics, Trump
filed a $5 million lawsuit against Maher in 2013 for breach of
contract. Appearing on Jay Leno’s “The Tonight Show,” Maher said he
would give $5 million to the charity of Trump’s choice if he could
prove he was not “the spawn of his mother having sex with an
orangutan.”
Trump claimed that when he provided his birth certificate, Maher
didn’t pay up, prompting the lawsuit. Trump ended up dropping it.
The Trump-Maher relationship exploded again earlier this year, when
the president claimed on social media that he wasted time sitting
down for a meal with the comedian last year.
“He came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he
would be,” Trump wrote online. “He was extremely nervous, had ZERO
confidence in himself.” Trump said the comedian admitted he was
“scared.”
Maher described the dinner as a “good time” during his April 11
episode of “Real Time,” noting that Trump was “gracious and
measured” and not like the “person who plays a crazy person on TV.”
He said he wasn’t scared.
He took time in his “New Rules” segment to point out the various
Trump policies he liked, including the “mass removal of stone cold
criminals” and making NATO members pay “their fair share.”
“I may be the last person from the lunatic left that is still an
honest broker when it comes to you,” he said. ”I always want the
American president to succeed, and I do give credit when you have,
but there’s lots of stuff you do that is not my idea of success, and
I have every right to say so in a democracy.”
___
Associated Press writer Mark Kennedy in New York contributed to this
report.
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