According to Kid Rock, a golf game with Donald Trump led to an unexpected chat with French President Emmanuel Macron after Trump handed him the phone. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Musician Kid Rock drew laughs from comedian Bill Maher’s audience as he recounted how a golf outing with President Donald Trump ended with the singer on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron.
During Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Kid Rock said he was golfing with Trump when the president handed him a phone with Macron on the line.
“That was funny. Yeah, we’re out golfing. I hate speaking out of school, but this is just a fun one,” Kid Rock said.
He told Maher that Trump was taking calls throughout their golf outing.
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President Donald Trump, with singer Kid Rock by his side, speaks to reporters and signs an executive order related to enforcement in the concert and entertainment industry in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 31, 2025. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“The guy’s taking calls all day,” Kid Rock said. “He’s working while you’re golfing. This guy does not stop working. We can all agree on that. He sleeps maybe four or five hours a night. So we’re out there, Macron calls, we’re out there, [Trump’s] talking to him.”
Kid Rock — whose real name is Robert Ritchie — then described how Trump handed him the phone while he stood beside the president’s golf cart.
“We’re all standing there,” Kid Rock continued. [Trump’s] like, ‘Hey, I’m here with the great Kid Rock,’ like Macron knows who I am, and he’s like, ‘Bob, say hello.’”
“So he gives me the phone and I’m like, ‘Hello, Mr. President,’” he added. “And I’m like, ‘I’m from the Paris of the Midwest: Detroit.’ And Trump leaves, he gets in the golf cart.”
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Comedian and television host Bill Maher arrived for the 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on June 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)
Maher laughed as Kid Rock described the exchange, telling the audience, “He leaves Macron on the phone with Kid Rock.”
Kid Rock concluded the story by mimicking his conversation with Macron, adding, “I was like, ‘So what else you been up to?'”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
The musician’s recounting of the phone call drew laughs from Maher, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and journalist Jim VandeHei.
The anecdote came during an episode in which Maher also fired back at a lengthy Truth Social post from Trump criticizing the comedian following their second White House dinner. Kid Rock and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith also attended the dinner.
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French President Emmanuel Macron meets with community members at a town hall on Oct. 23, 2026, in Trappes, France, following a shooting that killed one person and injured at least four others. France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation into the attack. (Hannah McKay/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“Eating with Trump is a lot like dating Taylor Swift,” Maher said. “It’s a lot of fun at the time but later on, they’re tearing you a new a——.”
Kid Rock’s story — and Maher’s apparent prompting — drew the ire of Democratic political strategist Kaivon Shroff, who told Fox News Digital the comedian’s knee-slapping was anything but candid.
“If Barack Obama had handed Emmanuel Macron off to some celebrity on a golf course and driven away, Maher would have gone on a ten-minute rant about how unserious, embarrassing and beneath the presidency it was,” Shroff said. “Trump does it and suddenly Maher is pounding the table laughing like it is the funniest thing he has ever heard.”
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“So spare me the idea that this is some spontaneous, authentic reaction. It is a performance,” Shroff told Fox News Digital. “He is putting on a show for the audience and trying to sell them on Trump as charming in a way he never would have tolerated from a Democratic president.”
“His whole brand is the liberal who bashes other liberals,” Shroff said. “But at some point if all you do is bash Democrats, pal around with Kid Rock, and suck up to Trump — you’re just a Republican.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Maher for comment.