Bill Maher Enjoys Watching Donald Trump Confront Journalists: 'It's Funny'

Bill Maher praised President Donald Trump's combative interview style, saying on an episode of his "Club Random" podcast that he takes vicarious joy in watching Trump confront journalists.

Speaking with his guest, actor Kevin Spacey, Maher admitted Trump often speaks his complete internal monologue during tense press interactions — a level of unfiltered bluntness the comedian confessed he sometimes envies.

Maher noted that when he watches Trump clash with the media, it resonates with his own suppressed reactions.

"And it's funny, you know, you want to say it back to the media and I won't about, anything, because you just don't want to pick that fight with them," Maher told Spacey. "But sometimes when I see Trump just speak his complete internal monologue without doing things that, it's just like – he will say something, and the one I'm thinking of is like, I've wanted to say that."

Recalling an interview where Trump was visibly annoyed and bluntly told ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, "You're a terrible person!" Maher confessed that he often shares the same sentiment when dealing with the press.

"And it's like, I can't deny... there's a moment where I would have — that's exactly what I was thinking," Maher said. "'You're a terrible person,' ‘It's not a sincere question,’ ‘It's a gotcha thing,’ ‘It's a virtue-signaling thing,’ ‘You don't believe it yourself.’ ‘But I don’t.’"

The HBO host just received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor — an accolade the Trump administration tried to prevent him from receiving after the thin-skinned POTUS got offended by one of his jokes.

Even as he praised Trump's media-clashing skill on the podcast, saying “Not our president” when it comes to bowing to journalists, Maher and other comedians took multiple sharp digs at Trump during the Mark Twain award ceremony itself, continuing Maher's long history of balancing harsh political criticism with occasional praise for Trump's rule-breaking nature.

Impressionist Matt Friend did a bit where he impersonated the petulant POTUS, saying, "Why are we giving this low-ratings lightweight jerk the Mark Twain Award?”

Trump has labeled Maher a "highly overrated lightweight." He added that Maher is "no different than [Jimmy] Kimmel, [Jimmy] Fallon, or [Stephen] Colbert" and accused him of suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome.'