Last week on Real Time, host Bill Maher devoted the lion’s share of his opening monologue to President Trump’s bizarre hospital visit in El Paso, Texas, where none of the mass-shooting victims treated there wished to meet with him. He also focused on Tucker Carlson’s divorced-from-reality claim that white supremacy is a “hoax.”
On Friday night, the comedian sank his teeth into Trump once more, this time focusing on a jab the president threw at the HBO host during a recent rally in Pittsburgh. “You have one guy on television: ‘I’m telling you he's not leaving—he’s going to win and then he’s not leaving, so in 2024, he won’t leave, I’m telling you.’ This is a serious person,” Trump said on Tuesday. “These people have gone stone cold crazy.”
The comment came on the heels of Trump tweeting the following about Maher:
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Cue Maher: “Trump has been tweeting about me and talking about me at his rallies, so my anxiety level is very high. I’m hoping he’ll get distracted by his new plan—I’m not making this up—he wants to buy Greenland… and name it ‘New Ivanka.’”
Yes, the news broke this week that Trump had apparently asked his aides if the country of Greenland could be purchased by the U.S.
“He had two Nuremberg rallies this week, and the highlight for me is at the one last night, he told a protester, ‘You have a weight problem!’ That’s like mocking virgins at Comic-Con, isn’t it?” cracked Maher. (It later emerged that it wasn’t a protester at all but rather a supporter.)
Maher also unpacked the perilous state of the U.S. economy, which may be headed toward a recession.
“Trump, the financial genius, is driving the economy over the cliff,” Maher explained. “His new slogan is: Make America Atlantic City Again. Did you see what happened in the stock market this week? I spent more time gasping for breath than Jeffrey Epstein.”
Later on during the panel portion, where he was joined by The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff and Rick Wilson, Maher defended his position of wishing for a recession to get rid of Trump.
“I’ve been saying for about two years that I hope we have a recession, and people get mad at me. Sean Hannity thinks I’m actually causing a recession. I do not have this power but he seems to be wanting to blame it on me, like I’m a genie and could make this happen,” said Maher, before pivoting to Trump’s anti-environment moves, including rolling back the Endangered Species Act. “[Recessions] don’t last forever. You know what lasts forever? Wiping out species—and people.”
What Maher seemed to conveniently overlook is how an economic recession would wipe out many, many people.
