Updated March 27, 2026 at 10:33 AM EDT
Bill Maher will be receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after all.
There's been some confusion about whether the comedian and longtime host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher would, indeed, be getting the top humor award. After The Atlantic cited anonymous sources saying he was, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it "fake news." But today the Kennedy Center made it official.
"For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy," said Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center's vice president of public relations in a statement. "For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse – one politically incorrect joke at a time."
Is President Trump, chair of the Kennedy Center's board, in on the joke?
It appears so. Maher once visited Trump at the White House and he tends to be more conservative than many of his comedian peers but after their dinner Trump soured on Maher, calling him a "highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT" on social media.
In a statement to NPR, a White House administration official wrote that "the situation changed after further conversations took place between the Trump-Kennedy Center and event organizers over the past week." (The performing arts center's leadership is currently being sued for changing the institution's name without the required authorization from Congress.)
"Bill Maher certainly deserves the Mark Twain Prize. He is a great satirist," said Cappy McGarr, a former Kennedy Center board member and a co-creator of the Mark Twain Prize. McGarr said that Maher has been a contender for the award for "many years."
Maher's acerbic wit has targeted both political parties and he's been particularly hard on Trump recently, criticizing his decisions to wage a war with Iran and his personnel choices.
"Trump said, 'when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.' Um, who's 'we?,'" Maher said in a recent monologue.
"He's an equal opportunity satirist. It doesn't matter who's in office. Bill Maher is going to make fun of him and has for his entire career," said McGarr.
Past recipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Conan O'Brien, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy and Carol Burnett.
In a statement released through the Kennedy Center, Maher said, "It is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who's been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain."
Maher will receive the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on June 28. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.
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