In the season finale of HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher began his monologue by thanking his “head writer” Donald Trump, and explaining how he just really “needs a fuckin’ break from this guy,” hence the two-month hiatus (the show returns on Jan. 18).
The political satirist then lashed out at the president for his ugly response to the wildfires that have ravaged California, decimating entire towns and leaving over 66 people dead as well as hundreds more missing.
“Of course, Trump’s response—you saw that—was to blame the victims, threaten to withhold federal funds,” said Maher. “This is what he does every time there’s a disaster. Wildfires? ‘You mismanaged your forests.’ Mass shooting? ‘You should’ve been armed.’ Hurricane? ‘Your island is very inconveniently located.’ His response to every tragedy is, ‘How can I hurt?’ He is to empathy what food courts are to ambiance.”
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“Today, he went out of his way to say he’s coming here just for the firefighters,” he continued. “He didn’t want to give the impression that he gives a shit about the citizens of this state who didn’t vote for him.”
Later on, Maher took stock of Trump’s tenure in office so far—by pointing out his many, many broken promises.
“By the way, Trump fans and others, if you’re keeping score: no wall; no health care plan that was ‘better, cheaper, covered everybody’; the trade deficit, bigger; the tax cut did not pay for itself; the debt is of course exploding; North Korea is building bombs again. You know, Mr. President, you can only slide so long on charm,” he joked.
Maher then took a victory lap over the midterm elections, which saw the Democrats flip (at least) 37 House seats en route to taking back the House by a considerable margin. It was, contrary to perpetually-wrong New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, a blue wave—and one that saw dozens of lefty women elected to Congress.
“He should be worried,” cracked Maher of the pending subpoenas against Trump. “Everybody has skeletons in their closet—he has mass graves.”
“Newly elected Democrats, they had their orientation… and it looks a lot more like America,” he added of the revamped House of Representatives. “A lot more diverse. Thirty-four new women. And the Republican side? All white, all straight, one woman. Party of Lincoln? Party of sausage.”
