Bill Maher has questioned Donald Trump’s “Art of the Deal” reputation, saying the president has little to show for his supposed expertise in his dealings with Iran.
“I love this deal,” Maher, 70, said sarcastically to open Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday. “We got everything we wanted except everything we asked for.”
He added, “I just hope we play Iran in the World Cup so we can beat them at something.”
The late-night host, who previously sat down with Trump for a White House dinner—after which the president went on to attack him on Valentine’s Day—has also said he supported action against Iran up to a point, but later argued Trump turned the conflict into a dangerous mess with no clear exit strategy.
Now that a deal has been reached, critics and supporters of Trump alike are questioning whether it is truly the best agreement he could have secured. Senior Iranian officials have already begun claiming the agreement as a victory for themselves.
“First of all, it’s not a deal; it’s a memorandum of understanding; it’s about as legally binding as the sign in the breakroom that says ‘clean microwave,’” Maher said, before adding, “It’s nothing.”
Trump, 80, signed the memorandum of understanding on Wednesday at the Palace of Versailles, a setting more often associated with historic defeat than diplomatic triumph.
The deal brings an immediate end to military operations, lifts U.S. sanctions on Iran, and establishes a $300 billion reconstruction fund, while Iran agrees it will not pursue nuclear weapons. It also sets out a phased U.S. withdrawal from its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.
But it falls well short of Trump’s earlier talk of “unconditional surrender,” a gap that Maher pointed out.
“We started with ‘unconditional surrender,’ Operation Epic Fury, and now it’s a memorandum of understanding,” Maher said.
“Where’s the big dealmaker? What happened to The Art of the Deal?” he continued.
The White House did not return an email seeking comment.
Behind the scenes, however, the White House has begun circulating talking points to allies framing the Iran deal as having “solved a threat Washington spent forty years managing,” according to Bloomberg.
“Start with what this means at home. American families no longer have to fear a nuclear-armed Iran. They are going to feel relief at the pump and at the grocery store. And they wake up to a safer, more prosperous world and a more secure homeland,” reads one of the distributed talking points.
The already-high cost of living has risen even further since the war broke out with Iran, and Trump’s approval ranking fell as fast as gas prices spiked.
“Is this his big close?” Maher asked. “I’ve got news for you—the emperor has no close.”
