Comedian Bill Maher said he was wrong about President Donald Trump’s tariffs Monday, saying they didn’t “sink the economy” like he initially thought.
Maher was speaking with political YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen about Trump, during which the latter described “the onus” Democrats must pursue amid the Trump presidency. Maher advised Cohen to “be honest” and avoid partisanship, saying, “I will always call it as I see it.”
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Maher cited Trump’s use of tariffs as an example, saying he was among “probably most people” who believed tariffs would have a negative effect on the nation, but “that didn’t happen.”
“But look, the stock market is at record highs. I know not everybody lives by the stock market, but I also drive around. I don’t see a country in a depression at all. I see people out there just living their lives,” Maher said Monday on his Club Random podcast.
“And I would’ve thought, and I gotta own it, that these tariffs were going to f***ing sink this economy by this time, and they didn’t! So how do we deal with that fact, cause that’s the fact?” Maher said.
Cohen said one way to deal with this is to not make predictions, since it’s “really f***ing difficult to predict anything.” He joked that if he was good at predicting the future, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have won the 2016 election, and he wouldn’t have sold his Netflix stock in 2010.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES TRADE DEAL WITH JAPAN WORTH $550B, IMPLEMENTING 15% RECIPROCAL TARIFFS
Earlier this month, Maher feuded with actor John Leguizamo over immigration. The actor said there is “plenty of room” for immigrants, but Maher disagreed, saying a key issue is the “resources” needed to take in immigrants.
Trump announced Sunday a 15% tariff on most imports from the European Union, including automobile imports. If no deal was reached by Trump’s Aug. 1 trade deal deadline, the EU would have been subjected to 30% tariffs.