Bill Maher trashed the president on his signature second-term policies following the news that the comedian’s chances of receiving a top award this year were nixed.
Maher eviscerated 79-year-old President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, his unpopular immigration tactics, and his ongoing military operation in Iran. The comedian, 70, said that the now-defunct DOGE, which was run by Trump frenemy Elon Musk, was a “huge disaster” on his show Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday.
The criticism of Trump’s presidency followed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling multiple reports that Maher would receive the Mark Twain Prize from the Kennedy Center, “fake news,” earlier in the day.
“To me, DOGE was a huge disaster,” Maher said. “Again, like a lot of things with Trump, not a bad idea to get rid of the government waste, but it didn’t do that, and people died.”
DOGE quietly sunset last November, but not before Musk and his goons fired tens of thousands of federal employees. The department appeared to accomplish very little while simultaneously creating dire consequences for both U.S. citizens and the country’s humanitarian beneficiaries abroad.
DOGE had accidentally purged living people from Social Security databases and marked them as dead.
Additionally, it effectively shut down USAID, the federal agency responsible for promoting democracy, economic prosperity, and global health abroad. Hundreds of thousands of people who relied on USAID for medical care have died because of the defunding.
Similarly, Maher said Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mission to “get rid of the criminals” was a “huge disaster.”
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have come under fire over the past few months for their indiscriminate detainment of immigrants, inhumane treatment of them, and sometimes lethal tactics. Criticism toward Trump’s immigration crackdown came to a head after two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal agents in the same month.
Still, Maher believes these controversies “went away quick.” However, with the president’s new war in Iran, the comedian said that he isn’t confident that Trump can come away unscathed from this latest foreign intervention.
“It seems like he gets out of s--t, but can he get out of this one?” Maher asked.
Maher also called out the Daily Beast on Friday’s show while bemoaning reaction culture online in a different segment. The professional commentator, who shares his hot takes weekly, criticized people for airing their opinions online.
“Remember that the next time you read the words ‘Twitter reacts’ or ‘backlash erupts’ or ‘internet explodes,’” he said. “The internet didn’t explode. Some Gen Z loser at The Daily Beast and some right wing s--tposter exploded. No one else cared.”
He copied the president’s “Trump Derangement Syndrome” insult, with the introduction of a new term for targets of his ire: “Terminally Online Syndrome.”
Despite the two sharing an amicable dinner last year and having a similar taste in insults, Maher and Trump have been embroiled in a public feud for months. Trump later called their dinner date a “total waste of time” during an unhinged Valentine’s Day posting spree on Truth Social.
Animosity appeared to come to a head on Friday when reports came out that Maher was going to receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center.
The award is one of the highest accolades a comedian can receive, with past recipients including Will Ferrell, Jon Stewart, and Dave Chappelle. The honor was not publicly announced, and Maher hadn’t acknowledged it.
But hours after CNN and The Atlantic reported he’d be receiving the prize, the White House pulled a bait and switch.
“This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Daily Beast in a statement, although she did not offer further details.
