There were two big news stories this week regarding President Trump.
The first: Stormy Daniels, a porn star who was paid $130,000 by Trump’s personal attorney for her silence concerning their alleged affair—a transaction which may be in violation of campaign finance rules—not only sued Trump for purportedly violating their “hush agreement,” but may be in possession of “certain still images and/or text messages” of the president.
The second: President Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying, “He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined.” Whether or not Trump did to bury the Stormy news is anyone’s guess.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill Maher, an outspoken Trump critic, was elated—by the North Korea news.
“I know why I’m happy: because Kim Jong Un of North Korea yesterday told South Korea that he’s willing to meet with the leader of the United States,” Maher said during his opening monologue. “Fat man and little boy are gonna have a date!”
The Real Time host then railed against liberals who were critical of the proposed diplomatic summit.
“All these liberals who are reflexively hating on this, A) Obama—remember him?—proposed the exact same thing in 2008 and they loved it, and B) you know, fuck you, you don’t live on the west coast where a nuke can get here faster than an Uber from North Korea,” exclaimed Maher.
He continued: “I mean, what is this bullshit? ‘No president has ever done this.’ Yeah, and they all failed! So I’m going to file this one under, ‘So crazy it just might work.’ This could be the one thing that Trump, honestly, is uniquely qualified to pull off, because Kim and him, Rocket Man and Rain Man, are mirror images. In a weird way, they respect and like each other. Trump said he’s a ‘smart cookie.’ They have the same interests: flattery, celebrity, tyranny. They both have daddy issues, and overeating issues, and problematic family members, and inexplicable hair.”
As to Maher’s first point, yes, during a CNN/YouTube debate on July 24, 2007, then-candidate Obama said he’d meet with “separately, without precondition” with the leaders of North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and Cuba.
“I would,” Obama said. “And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them—which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of [the George W. Bush] administration—is ridiculous.”
He never followed through on that promise, of course.
And Maher wasn’t done.
“Another stupid argument I heard on TV last night: ‘Well, we’ll just be giving Kim the respect he and his family have always craved.’ So what? So what if it works?! My old pot dealer used to hang out with me because I’m a celebrity and I still got free weed,” he joked.
“And you know what, if you hate Trump so much—I do—this may not even be happening because of Donald Trump,” he added. “It could be his tough talk, it could be because of the sanctions, it could have been because of the Olympics. Who knows what is in Kim Jong Un’s mind? It could be because Shape of Water won Best Picture and he thought, well, if you can fuck a fish you can negotiate with a whale.”
