Bill Maher brushes off liberal critics ahead of Trump meeting
Comedian Bill Maher is planning a White House meeting with Donald Trump, facilitated by Kid Rock, despite years of political criticism.
Straight Arrow News
Bill Maher is standing by his past criticisms of President Donald Trump while admitting he doesn’t “hate” him.
Speaking with NewsNation personality Chris Cuomo on Sunday’s episode of the Club Random podcast, Maher said that though he has not been a fan of some of Trump’s comments and actions, he believes “Trump is one of the most effective politicians.”
“Whatever you think of the policy and him as a person, just as a politician, (Trump is) understanding that (you) always lean into being more of who you are,” Maher told Cuomo. “The people are not savvy about issues but they smell a phony a mile away. And that kind of (stuff), nobody else does it.”
Maher continued: “I’ve been his biggest critic, for good reason, and when he got reelected I said, ‘I’m not going to pre-hate anything.’ And in the first week, I said, ‘There’s lots of things I hate.’ Because I do. OK, there’s some things I don’t hate, also.”
He gave examples of instances where he felt he had to “give it up” to Trump, including the president’s claim during a debate with Kamala Harris in September that he’d sent a man named Abdul a photo of his house as a threat while negotiating with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The comment — which presumably referenced Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is among the Taliban’s leadership — sparked a flurry of memes.
“I was like, ‘Oh, can we play the music now?’ I don’t care if it’s Donald Trump and he’s the worst person ever, blah blah blah, I … love that,” Maher said.
Bill Maher denounces people who ‘hate Trump’
Maher, who said he has “never been a Democrat” but has also “never voted for the Republican” candidate, also denounced critics who “hate Trump.”
“I don’t think it’s a good place for your mind to be — to hate anybody, to hate what they do, policies,” he said.
Maher, who had dinner with Trump at the White House last week, clarified he’s not necessarily a fan of the president.
“I could list things I hate about Trump right from making fun of McCain. I really, really, hated that and I’m not even a Republican. … It was so offensive, but I don’t hate him. If you let yourself into that hate, then everything that happens you only see through the one partisan lens.”
As a longtime critic of Trump’s, Maher said: “I totally understand their hate. A lot of what they hate, I hate too. But I also have a rational mind. … If you don’t believe in the secession of power, if you don’t really believe in the emergency of climate change, I can’t get on board with you.”
Maher: Trump appeals to voters ‘at a primal level’
But Maher admitted Trump has “political instincts” and a “connection with young people,” which he believes the Democratic party lacks.
“He has those moments that no other politician has. And the Democrats have to find that guy. … Democrats have to come up with an alpha,” Maher said. “You’ve got to appeal to people at a sort of post-civilization stage, where we’re kind of at, at a primal level. And Trump does it better than everybody.”
The two-term president has gone after Maher multiple times over the years, frequently targeting him in social media posts that claimed the ratings for “Real Time with Bill Maher,” now in its 23rd season, were suffering. Trump also filed a lawsuit against Maher in 2013 — then later dropped the case — after the TV host joked that Trump was “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”
Maher is slated to talk about his dinner with Trump on Friday’s “Real Time” epsiode.
Multiple polls published over the last week found that less than half of Americans approved of the president, with most pointing to Trump’s handling of the economy as the reason for their gripes. The Trump administration’s aggressive and sweeping tariffs have sparked a global trade war and sunk U.S. stocks.
On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center also released a survey that showed Americans’ attitudes toward Trump’s U.S. foreign policy moves lean more negative or uncertain.
Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY
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