In an interview with “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, “Real Time” comedian Bill Maher dismissed those who have criticized his relationship with President Trump, calling them “not bright” and “just emotional.”
“We have something in common, Joe, which is that we talk to the president, and so [to] some people, we’re evil, and we’re not evil,” Maher told Scarborough. “We’re, I think, doing something smarter than most people because he is the President of the United States. As I keep trying to make the case, you know, what is the alternative? The people who say, ‘Well, you’re elevating him.’ Oh, my God, you mean he’s going to become president?”
“One reason why I got invited to the White House, I think it was kind of a Nixon to China thing, like, I had established my credentials, I think, rather well as someone who was a [critic]. And that never stopped after,” Maher added, noting that he does find America’s current political climate “very discouraging and scary.” When Scarborough then asked him about the people who disapprove of his relationship with Trump, Maher brushed them off.
“They’re not bright. They’re just emotional. It’s pure emotionalism. I get it that Trump drives people crazy, and for good reason,” he said. “When he was running the second time, I said, ‘I’m not going to judge anything before he gets there.’ But having been there now for a year, I judge. A lot of things I judge terribly.” Maher listed Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts and the president’s increased Pentagon funding, as well as “everything with ICE,” as things he has hated from Trump’s first year back in office.
“There’s also a shorter list of things that aren’t terrible. That I don’t hate,” he added. “I’m glad he bombed Iran, the peace deal in the Middle East, getting the hostages out. There are some things, OK?” You can watch Maher’s full “Morning Joe” interview yourself below.
Through his interactions with Trump, Maher said he has been struck by the difference between the president’s public persona and private self.
“What people found so abhorrent that I would report accurately is that you can talk to him and that he’s very different [in private],” the “Real Time” host explained. “He listens, and now you can ask the question, ‘Why doesn’t he do that when he’s in public?’ I can’t answer these questions. All I can tell you is that my assessment of him is that he’s not the worst guy in the world, except when he’s in a fight. Unfortunately, politics is all fighting.”
“When he gets into a fight, then he’s like a guy in a bar. He picks up whatever he has to to kill you with it, and he just doesn’t stop,” Maher continued. “He needs more people like you and me talking to him, not less, because he’s not a guy with a lot of, let’s say, fixed beliefs.”
“Every time I said something that he did not agree with or was confrontational, he never got mad,” Maher concluded. “He likes a conversation, and so I would just encourage lots of people — try to get in there, because you’ll enjoy it.”
