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Bill Maher did not hold back in his critique of President Donald Trump’s recent online misstep, where the former reality TV star, now President, shared a controversial AI-generated video. The clip, widely seen as racially insensitive, depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
On the Friday night airing of Real Time With Bill Maher on February 6, the 70-year-old host tackled the topic. Trump, 79, had shared the offensive video on his platform, Truth Social, only to remove it shortly afterward.
Maher opened his monologue by highlighting the unfortunate timing of Trump’s post, noting it coincided with Black History Month. He quipped that the administration seemed to observe the month with a call for “a moment of indifference.”
“No, they did something even more outrageous,” Maher continued. “Trump pulled a Rosanne [Barr]. Did you catch this? He circulated a video where the Obamas were depicted as apes. I won’t be showing it here because it doesn’t deserve any attention.”
Maher also criticized the administration’s attempt to justify the incident following the public outcry.
“But the defense, I thought, from the administration, was rather lame,” he said. “They said he did not mean to hit ‘share.’ He meant to hit ‘like.’”
The late-night host then turned his attention to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whom he described as a “very loyal spokesperson,” before dissecting her justification for the post.
“She said the president was just reposting a meme of him as the king of the jungle with Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Maher said. “As world leaders do.”
Maher wasn’t buying it, outlining what he called two major flaws in the explanation.
“One, there are no apes in The Lion King,” he said. “And two, if it’s a cartoon character, that’s OK? That’s a rule now? If it’s a cartoon, it’s OK to do anything? So it’s OK if somebody made a cartoon of Elmer Fudd shooting Charlie Kirk, that would be OK? You f***ing hypocrites.”
Maher also dug into election anxiety during a separate sit-down with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, which you can watch above. The two sparred over Trump’s grip on the Republican Party and what Christie warned is a growing push by some Republicans to take over how elections are run — including who counts the votes — a prospect that left Maher visibly unconvinced this was all “no big deal.”
Real Time With Bill Maher airs Fridays at 10/9c on HBO.