WASHINGTON — Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher will receive the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Trump Kennedy Center later this year, it was announced Thursday — days after White House officials denied that would be the case.

The 70-year-old host of HBO’s “Real Time” will receive the award June 28 at a gala ceremony that will be streamed on Netflix, Politico first reported.

“Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win,” Maher said in a statement. “I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”

“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” added Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations at the Trump Kennedy Center. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse – one politically incorrect joke at a time.”

The Atlantic initially reported last week that Maher had been chosen for the Mark Twain Prize — whose past recipients include Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien — only for the Trump administration to push back strongly.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed, “This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award,” while communications director Steven Cheung posted on X that the Atlantic report was “literally FAKE NEWS.”

“Anonymous sources with half-baked information leaked to The Atlantic before conversations were finalized,” a source with knowledge of the matter claimed to The Post Thursday. “There was nothing to confirm at the time, and it is not appropriate to get ahead of any settled agreement between multiple parties involved.”

President Trump is not expected to attend the gala honoring Maher, a staunch liberal who has also criticized the far left of the Democratic Party.

“Sitting presidents have not historically participated in the Mark Twain Prize ceremony, and President Trump will follow that same precedent this year,” said a source close to the center.

“The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is historically a non-partisan award recognizing individuals whose comedy has had an impact on American society and culture. The selection of Bill Maher as this year’s recipient speaks to the Center’s bipartisan approach to entertainment across the performing arts, including comedy.”

Last April, Maher said he was pleasantly surprised at Trump’s graciousness when he dined at the White House — adding that the president’s display of “good humor,” which he recounted in detail, may cause “liberal sphincters” to tighten.

“Everything I’ve not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent. At least on this night, with this guy,” he said.

“I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him. And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump,” the talk show host noted. “Make of it what you will.”

Trump had hurled many insults Maher’s way in the past, and the comedian seemed delighted to get some of the best insults — such as “sleaze-bag” and “low-life dummy” — printed out on a sheet for the president to sign.

Despite receiving a bunch of Make America Great Again baseball caps, Maher also said he felt no pressure to “go MAGA” afterward.

Trump has lashed out at Maher in subsequent Truth Social posts, exclaiming just last month that it “was a total waste of time for me to have this jerk at the White House.”

Maher was “extremely nervous” and had “ZERO confidence” during their dinner, the president also claimed.

Asked later on his show whether Trump still texts him, Maher revealed: “Yes, yelling at me!”

Conan O’Brien had received the prestigious humor award in 2025. Each award winner is gifted a copy of a bronze bust of Twain, first sculpted by Karl Gerhardt in 1884.

The late comedian Richard Pryor was the first to be awarded the prize.