---
title: "Bill Maher Gets the Mark Twain Prize the White House Said He Wouldn't"
description: "Bill Maher receives the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday — an honor the White House publicly insisted earlier this year would never happen, at an institution remade under President Trump."
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Tyler Grant"
published: 2026-06-28T22:58:45.000Z
updated: 2026-06-28T22:58:45.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/bill-maher-gets-the-mark-twain-prize-the-white-house-said-he-wouldn-t
tags: ["Bill Maher", "Mark Twain Prize", "Kennedy Center", "comedy", "Trump"]
---
# Bill Maher Gets the Mark Twain Prize the White House Said He Wouldn't

Bill Maher receives the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday — an honor the White House publicly insisted earlier this year would never happen, at an institution remade under President Trump.

Bill Maher will accept the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday at the Kennedy Center — the capstone of a strange episode in which the White House first declared the award wasn't happening at all.

## The honor, and the denial

The Kennedy Center is presenting Maher with its [27th Mark Twain Prize](https://www.kennedy-center.org/news-room/press-release-landing-page/bill-maher-27-mark-twain-prize/), the most prominent award in American comedy, at a gala in the Concert Hall on June 28. The program is set to stream later on Netflix.

The path there was unusual. When reports first surfaced this spring that Maher had been chosen, the White House pushed back forcefully, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissing the news as "fake news" and saying Maher would not receive the award. The Kennedy Center announced it anyway, [Variety reported](https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/bill-maher-mark-twain-prize-trump-white-house-fake-news-1236700506/).

## An institution transformed

The friction is inseparable from what has happened to the Kennedy Center itself. In early 2025, President Trump replaced the center's bipartisan board, ousted its longtime president, and was installed as board chairman — an unprecedented political reshaping of the federally chartered arts institution, [the Associated Press reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/28/kennedy-center-maher-trump-mark-twain-prize/da7bc732-72e5-11f1-b665-5f8be87f3787_story.html). The changes drew protests and the departure of artists, and a court later ordered the removal of Trump's name from the building after it was briefly added.

That backdrop gives the choice of Maher its edge. A comedian who has spent nearly three decades needling political figures across the spectrum is being honored by an institution now led by appointees of a president he frequently criticizes — and one Maher has tangled with personally. Maher accepted a White House dinner invitation in 2025, arranged through the musician Kid Rock, then offered a mixed account of the encounter on his HBO show.

## A long run in late night

Maher, 70, joins a roster of past recipients that includes Richard Pryor, Tina Fey, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart and, most recently, Conan O'Brien. He has hosted *Real Time with Bill Maher* on HBO since 2003, following his earlier program *Politically Incorrect* — a body of work the Kennedy Center cited in recognizing his influence on American political comedy.

The ceremony also carries a sense of an ending: the Kennedy Center is scheduled to close after the event for a lengthy, costly renovation. For Maher, the timing offers exactly the kind of irony he has built a career on — collecting the nation's top humor prize, at a politically contested moment, from a stage about to go dark.

## Sources

- [Bill Maher — 27th Mark Twain Prize (press release)](https://www.kennedy-center.org/news-room/press-release-landing-page/bill-maher-27-mark-twain-prize/)
- [Humor laurels for comedian Bill Maher as the Kennedy Center navigates Trump-era upheaval](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/28/kennedy-center-maher-trump-mark-twain-prize/da7bc732-72e5-11f1-b665-5f8be87f3787_story.html)
- [Bill Maher to Receive Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for Humor](https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/bill-maher-mark-twain-prize-trump-white-house-fake-news-1236700506/)