Bill Maher jokes about the worst thing that an alien could say to humanity

From left: President Donald Trump speaking to reporters on the South Lawn before boarding Marine One at the White House on January 16, 2026 in Washington, DC; and an edited image of the Earth from the Moon’s surface.

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Melissa Fleur Afshar

By Melissa Fleur Afshar

Reporter

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Bill Maher is worried about what extraterrestrial visitors would think of humanity if the first person they encountered from Earth was President Donald Trump.

Speaking on his Club Random podcast, the Real Time host warned that aliens could form an inaccurate—and unflattering—impression of humans if they were led straight to the U.S. president.

Maher, 70, raised the concern during a conversation with UFO documentarian and filmmaker Dan Farah in an episode released on January 26. The episode has been viewed more than 51,000 times on YouTube to date.

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Farah appeared on the podcast to discuss his documentary Age of Disclosure, which explores alleged government cover‑ups, crash retrievals and what intelligence officials have told him on camera about "non‑human beings."

The two men's conversation ranged from ocean‑dwelling crafts to 1990s pop‑culture fears about alien probing, but Maher's mind went to who aliens might meet first, questioning whether Trump could be the first person to announce, "We are not alone."

"If they do say ‘take us to your leader,’ and that is Donald Trump…I mean, he is the president of America, and that is the leader of the free world," Maher said. "If they're going to base their ideas about how we all are…There's a lot there."

Maher told Farah he worries about what extraterrestrials would conclude if 79-year-old Trump represented the entire, diverse human race. While Maher acknowledged that Trump has "some points that aren’t completely horrible," he said there was also "a lot there that's going to make them go, ‘What the **** have we gotten us into here?’"

The concern, Maher added, is not about alien hostility but about reputation: "I wouldn't want them to think we're that narcissistic. I wouldn't want them to think we're that corrupt."

He went on to say that he would "hate the aliens to base their judgment on us," according to how Trump has handled key domestic issues.

Maher also joked about Trump’s political rhetoric and recent moves entering interstellar territory.

Imagining the president discussing trade with extraterrestrial visitors, he said: "Even when he identifies…I don't want to put tariffs on spacecraft…It just wouldn't be a good look for humans."

From left: Trump speaks to reporters at the White House on January 16, 2026 in Washington, D.C.; and the Earth from the Moon's surface.

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The remarks came during the wide‑ranging, 1-hour 22-minute-long episode in which Farah laid out claims from senior intelligence officials about crash sites, recovered materials and alien entities—topics that have fueled recent public debate about unidentified anomalous phenomena for years.

Maher and Farah also discussed Spielberg’s sci-fi films, why Mars would make a terrible vacation destination, and how popular culture has shaped our beliefs about alien encounters.