Bill Maher poked fun at President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s virtual back-and-forth during the latest episode of Real Time with a reference to the sprawling legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
At the top of Friday’s episode of the HBO series, the comedian kicked things off by thanking his audience for “putting on a brave face because I know you’re all probably upset” because of “what happened with Elon and Donald Trump” this past week.
Maher later said that he wasn’t going to “pretend I can really think about anything other than the Trump, Elon” rift, comparing their conflict to the Godzilla vs. Kong movie franchise. “When you think about it, the richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world, it’s like Godzilla versus King Kong, if Godzilla was on ketamine and King Kong had a comb over,” he said.
He then joked that the two were “so close, it was like Brangelina or Bennifer,” referencing to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s respective former relationships. Maher went on to joke about the details of their virtual feud, joking, “What happened this week, this has been brewing for a while, OK, people.”
On Thursday, Trump and Musk began fighting online after the Tesla CEO openly criticized the Republican Party’s One Big Beautiful Bill. “I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,” President Trump shared on Truth Social, before the two began going back and forth on separate social platforms, including Musk’s X.
“What put it over the edge is that, you know, Elon came in there to reduce the government bloat and all that stuff, and then they have this Big Beautiful Bill that’s nothing but government bloat, which Elon tweeted out,” he said. “He said it was a disgusting abomination, and then Trump said, ‘Well, he has Trump derangement syndrome,’ and then Elon said, ‘Well, your tariffs are gonna cause an erection — a recession,’ is what I meant to say.”
Maher addressed Musk alleging that Trump’s name was in the Epstein Files, adding, “And now this is just a war that is going back and forth, and back and forth, and the stakes are so high because the winner faces Blake Lively,” he said, referring to Lively’s legal battle against the It Ends With Us director that ignited after she filed a complaint against Baldoni for sexual harassment and an alleged coordinated effort to destroy her reputation, per the filing obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
As Trump and Musk began their virtual feud at the end of this week, advancements in Lively and Baldoni’s case came on Tuesday as the judge overseeing the case ruled that she cannot refile emotional distress claims against the actor at a later stage if she chooses to abandon them.
In a statement, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, lawyers for Lively, said their client is dropping certain claims because “they are no longer necessary” and that she will “continue to pursue emotional distress damages through other claims in her lawsuit,” including sexual harassment and retaliation.