Donald Trump Once Sued Bill Maher For A Shocking Reason

In the years since Donald Trump became famous enough to make a series of movie cameos, he has developed a reputation for being blunt. After all, Donald once insulted a movie legend, he joked about Tiger Woods' cheating scandal, and his comments once caught Jay Leno off-guard. As a result, it seemed like Donald wouldn't be upset if the best talk show hosts made fun of him.

Similar to Donald, Bill Maher likes talking about controversial topics, like why Jimmy Kimmel was mad at Jay Leno. With that in mind, it shouldn't have surprised anyone when Bill once made a joke about Donald's father. As a result, Bill's fortune was put in peril when Donald sued him over that joke about his father.

Why Did Donald Trump Once Sue Bill Maher?

Long before Donald Trump truly became a politician, he was a famous figure who was known as a reality star and business leader. During that era of Donald's career, the news didn't cover just anything related to him.

As a result of the fact that Donald hasn't always lived under the spotlight that he is now under, many facts about him have faded away. A perfect example of that is the fact that many people aren't aware of some of the bizarre lawsuits that Donald has been involved in over the years.

To be clear, some of the lawsuits that Donald has been involved with have been bizarre for reasons that were largely out of his control. One perfect example of that is the truly ridiculous reason that Donald once sued Bill Maher. At least, the ridiculousness of that lawsuit was the fault of both Bill and Donald.

Before Donald Trump became the President himself, he spent a long time questioning if President Barack Obama was born in America. While that is fairly well-known, many people have forgotten the lengths that Donald went to while claiming Barack wasn't qualified to be the President.

During this time, Donald repeatedly called for Barack to release his long form birth certificate, which didn't happen for a long time.

In April 2011, the official White House website released President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate. In a statement at that time, Barack explained he released the birth certificate because the distraction was bad for America.

In September 2016, The Washington Post published an article looking at Donald's attempts in the past to get Barack to release his birth certificate. That article stated that Donald Trump offered to pay $5 million to charity if Barack released his birth certificate, and he later upped that offer to $50 million.

That series of events led directly to Donald suing Bill Maher because of a joke the talk show host made at the time. In 2013, Bill Maher appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and made a similar offer to the one Donald was making at the time.

In Bill's case, he offered to donate $5 million to charity if it could be proven that Donald's father wasn't an orangutan. Bill then joked that orangutans have similar hair as Donald does. In response to Bill's remarks on The Tonight Show, Donald sued him, seeking to force the comedian to pay $5 million to charity as he promised he would.

In February 2013, Politico published an article about the lawsuit Donald filed against Bill. As a part of that article, Politico quoted a statement that Donald released stating that he was sticking up for the charities he argued Bill should donate to.

“I don’t know whether this case will be won or lost, but I felt a major obligation to bring it on behalf of the charities. Bill Maher made an unconditional offer while on The Jay Leno Show and I, without hesitation, accepted his offer and provided him with the appropriate documentation. Prior demands for payment went ignored by Mr. Maher despite the fact that the beneficiaries of this suit will ultimately be the charities… who would share equally the $5 million — something I am certain they can desperately use.”

Politico's article also revealed that Donald had his lawyer release his birth certificate to prove his father wasn't an animal.

In February 2013, Bill appeared on Conan O'Brien's talk show to discuss the matter.

Politico's aforementioned report quoted what Donald Trump told Fox News in February 2013 about why he was suing Bill Maher. “He promised me $5 million for charity if I provided certain information. Well, I provided the information. He didn’t pay. So today I sue Bill Maher for $5 million for charity.”

During that appearance, which can be seen in part in a YouTube video, Bill commented on the lawsuit he was facing from Donald. While talking to Conan, Bill questioned the idea of claiming a joke was legally binding.

He thinks a joke on a late night talk show is a binding legal agreement. And in the world of late night comedy, there are no binding agreements.

In February 2013, The Hollywood Reporter published an article looking at if Donald's lawsuit against Bill was likely to succeed. That article was so confident that Donald's lawsuit would fail that the outlet offered to donate $500 to charity if it succeeded.

As a part of The Hollywood Reporter's article, they brought up a lawsuit that was filed which sought to force Pepsi to give someone an AV-8 Harrier II jump jet. In a commercial, Pepsi claimed that their customers could get the jet as a part of a giveaway. When a customer followed the rules and demanded the jet, Pepsi successfully argued in court that the commercial was clearly meant to be a joke.

The argument that The Hollywood Reporter made to back up their claim that Donald's lawsuit would fail is by citing similar legal battles from the past. More specifically, The Hollywood Reporter cited several lawsuits that sought to force people and companies to live up to offers they jokingly made, which all failed.

Donald Trump Quickly Dropped His Lawsuit Against Bill Maher

When Donald Trump sued Bill Maher in February 2013, it didn't take long for the matter to get a major update. In fact, the whole matter seemingly came to an end a little bit less than two months after Donald first filed his lawsuit.

In April 2013, The Hollywood Reporter published a report that revealed that Donald had withdrawn his lawsuit at that time.

As a part of The Hollywood Reporter's article about Donald withdrawing his lawsuit, they quoted his lawyer at that time. Michael Cohen told the outlet that “the lawsuit was temporarily withdrawn to be amended and refiled at a later date.”

Despite Michael's statement at that time, there were never any reports about Donald's lawsuit against Bill being refiled. While the absence of reports about that doesn't prove the lawsuit wasn't refiled, it makes it extremely likely that it never happened. After all, it seems extremely likely that Bill wouldn't have continued to speak out if he was facing a lawsuit from Donald again.