“Real Time” host Bill Maher delivered a sobering monologue Friday on the consequences of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, and argued Trump’s vision to revive U.S. manufacturing is a fool’s errand that hardworking Americans couldn’t possibly want.
“Christ, we hit the 100-day mark of the Trump administration, as you know, this week,” Maher said on the HBO show Friday. “And, ooh, the numbers are kind of in the toilet: 39% of America approval rating. That’s the lowest 100-day mark for a president in 80 years.”
“I’m just giving you the facts,” he added. “The S&P 500, down 7% since Trump took office. The value of the dollar is off 10%. The economy has shrunk for the first time in three years. Consumer confidence is down for the first time in five years.”
While the president celebrated his 100th day in office by openly rejecting criticism against him, the above figures are a reflection of the steep international tariffs he announced on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day.”
Trump, whose ever-changing stance on tariffs certainly hasn’t helped consumer trust, hit China particularly hard. He recently argued China will simply have to “eat” those levies, and has defended his trade war as a just crusade to revive U.S. factory jobs.
Maher argued Friday that much of the resulting market instability is a direct response from confused American consumers, and appeared genuinely baffled that Trump would want to jeopardize the nation’s financial dominance across the global economic landscape.
“The thing is that, people in this country now, we don’t understand why we’re doing this,” he said. “Why are we fucking putting ourselves through this? To bring manufacturing back from China, to make the things here that they make in China? That’s the American dream?”
“‘Hey, you see that [Pokémon character] Squirtle hanging off that girl’s backpack? My kid made that!’” Maher jokingly continued. “That’s really the new American dream? A house, a car and a job painting the eyes on Bratz dolls? I mean, for fuck’s sake.”
Maher has been a longtime Trump critic and endorsed Democratic candidates in several past elections, including former President Barack Obama and ex-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. But he recently met with Trump for dinner, and after, called him “gracious and measured.”