Bill Maher ridiculed President Donald Trump’s whining response to the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his global tariffs.
In a 6-3 ruling on Friday, the court said Trump’s use of tariffs was illegal, in a monumental blow to a key policy. The president, 79, blew up at the court on social media and in a lengthy press gathering.
“He’s such a Karen,” Maher laughed. “Everything is always, ‘I want to speak to the manager,’ and the Supreme Court said, ‘We’re the manager’.”
The Real Time host spent much of his opening monologue on Friday’s show riffing on the fact that Trump cannot stand being told “no,” describing him as having gone “bats--t” about the ruling.
The comedian joked that it wasn’t because other presidents lacked Trump’s self-proclaimed intelligence that they hadn’t pursued similar policies without Congressional oversight.
“They did think of it. They thought it was illegal. So they didn’t do it,” Maher said.
The ruling throws into question the $175 billion in tariffs collected from nations worldwide since the start of Trump’s second term. Ninety percent of that money is thought to have been paid to the treasury by American households and businesses.
The White House has remained defiant in the face of the embarrassing ruling, and Trump has since announced his intention to impose blanket 10 percent tariffs on every foreign nation under a different law from the one he used to impose his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Trump has said he will find alternative means of implementing his policies, but was reportedly furious about the decision.
“These f---ing courts,” he is alleged to have ranted in private in the aftermath of the ruling.
Maher joked that the Supreme Court, which contains justices appointed by Trump himself, could soon find itself on the wrong end of development plans for its efforts to restrain the president’s power.
“If you’ve ever been to Washington D.C. and seen that majestic Supreme Court building; It’s going to make a lovely ballroom,” Maher laughed, referencing the ongoing $400 million White House project.
Maher, a self-described centrist, has long sought to speak to both sides of politics. In 2025, he attended a dinner with Trump at the White House, something the president said was a “total waste of time” in a wild online outburst last week.
“We had a great dinner, it was quick easy, and he seemed to be a nice guy… but then I noticed his show started to devolve into the same old story—Very boring, ANTI TRUMP,” the president wrote in a long-winded rant on Truth Social on Valentine’s Day.
Maher addressed the bizarre message in Friday’s episode but said he will respond in full to the laundry list of allegations in an upcoming show.
“I never stopped criticizing him, I never said I would,” Maher said in his defense. “I know how women feel now, a guy buys you dinner and then expects you to put out. I’m not that guy.”
