Prolific director Woody Allen shared some rare Hollywood praise for President Trump. Allen was appearing on Bill Maher’s “Club Random Podcast” when he discussed directing the President in his 1998 movie, Celebrity. Allen said President Trump “was a pleasure to work with and a very good actor.” “He was very polite and hit his mark and did everything correctly and had a real flair for show business,” added Allen. “I only wish I could direct him now — if he would let me direct him now that he’s president I think I could do wonders. But he was very easy to work with.” Allen was quick to note he is not a “Trumper,” and that he voted for Kamala Harris. Politically, Allen said he takes “issue with him on 95% of the things, maybe 99%, but as an actor to work with he was very good. He was very convincing, and he had a charismatic quality as an actor.”

Maher, too, has expressed mixed feelings about President Trump. Despite having been a harsh critic of President Trump, when describing the President during a meeting with him arranged by Kid Rock, Maher described him as “not the person who the night before the dinner … tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how he thought this dinner was a bad idea and what a deranged (expletive) I was.” After describing the President’s ability to laugh at himself and generally charming behavior, Maher said, “Look, I get it. It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian; it matters who he is on the world stage. I’m just taking it as a positive that this person exists, because everything I’ve ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent, at least on this night with this guy.”

Speaking to Fox News Digital, country star John Rich, an avid supporter of Trump, said Allen’s recent admission shows that Hollywood may be opening up to President Trump, even if it is slight. “I think a lot of people in Hollywood, even though they’re leftists in a big way, they also felt the censorship machine coming after them,” he said. He noted that before, to say even the slightest thing that would be off color, such as for a comedian friend who was a Bernie Sanders supporter, could lead to the fear of cancelation. “And so, I think the monster began to eat itself. The woke monster, the censorship monster began to eat itself,” he said. He stated his friend revealed he would vote for Trump because of the suppression of speech on the Left. After Trump’s 2024 election, Kid Rock stated he believed Hollywood would be less afraid to offer praise. “Now they feel it’s safe to go in the water after dipping their toe in it for four to eight years,” he said. “I mean, welcome to the party, like I’ve said. Better to have them on board than not.”