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Given that Bill Maher has probably seen and heard it all, it was surprising to see him register shock over President Donald Trump’s popularity.
During a panel discussion with ESPN host Stephen Smith, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and actor Jesse Eisenberg, the Real Time with Bill Maher host appeared to be stunned by his own admission that the president is now considered “cool.”
“Here’s how bad the Democrats f***ed up — Trump is cool now,” he said.
“He’s not just the most powerful guy in the world and just made himself like the richest, he’s actually kind of [cool] at 78!”
He added: “I mean, rappers like him, the athletes are doing…” then did a little of Trump’s rally dance.
“I was making fun of him, j***ing off two guys at one time, and now he owns it. And now they’re doing it,” Maher said.
“I mean, the Village People are gay for Trump now!”
Khanna noted Trump has “always been a celebrity,” highlighting his hosting gig on The Apprentice and other TV and movie cameos, but Maher wasn’t buying it.
“He was a joke!”
Smith suggested that Democrats are to blame for make Trump even more famous, declaring that liberal celebrities “all loved him until he ran for office.”
Khanna asked, “Do we have to have the celebrity president? I mean, is it all about coolness? How about being cool as president who is actually about helping people?”
Maher replied, “That horse has left the barn.”
The former Politically Incorrect host has been slammed by social media users for his apparent flip-flopping between the left and the right.
He threatened to quit his show if Trump got elected to a second term in the White House, but as of late, has been siding with Trump on some issues, prompting some of his fans to call him out for becoming increasingly pro-Trump in order to stay relevant.
Maher clearly heard the haters, joking on his show on Trump’s inauguration day about how in the past “things have been said,” and blamed all his previous Trump bashing on his writers.
Earlier in Friday’s episode, Maher and Smith slammed Democrats for leaning so far to the left, allowing Trump to be re-elected.
“The man was impeached twice. He was convicted on 34 felony counts, and the American people still said he’s closer to normal than what we see on the left,” Smith remarked.
“Exactly,” Maher agreed.
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“Why?” Smith asked, before going on to answer his own question.
“Because something that pertains when you talk about the transgender community, for example, you talk about the issues that pertain to less than 1% of the population, the Democratic Party came across as if that was a priority more so than the other issues.”