Bill Maher goes off on Trump weeks after friendly dinner with prez at White House: Flirting with authoritarianism
Comedian Bill Maher launched into a screed against President Trump, accusing him of “flirting with authoritarianism,” weeks after having a friendly dinner with his longtime foe.Citing his cordial dinner with Trump at the end of March as proof that he can be fair-minded, Maher reverted to his well-worn criticisms that the president has been “flirting with fascism.”“Trump is the only president when you’re relieved when he doesn’t keep his campaign promises,” Maher quipped on his eponymous “Real Time with Bill Maher” show.Maher griped about how Trump has joked that he won’t be a dictator “except on Day One,” as well as his machinations about serving a third term as president despite the 22nd Amendment barring him from running again.“That’s the problem with dictator jokes.They don’t stay jokes.
And flirting with authoritarianism doesn’t stay flirting,” Maher stressed.“I’m telling you, humans cannot be trusted to just flirt with other attractive humans, and the MAGA crowd cannot be trusted to flirt with dictatorship,” he argued.
“Not everyone who flirts cheats.But all cheating starts with flirting.”Maher was a staunch critic of Trump throughout his first term, but has since made inroads with conservatives and libertarians for his crusade against wokeness.Earlier this year, rock star Kid Rock encouraged the two to meet up and both men agreed.
Maher publicly admitted that during that dinner, “everything I’ve not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent.”Maher contended that his honest assessment of Trump should give him credibility with conservatives to highlight the president’s flaws.“I’ve taken some s–t from the loony left for just reporting, honestly, how the president reacted in private when I criticized him to his face,” Maher argued.“I was honest about it.And that gives me standing to say to conservatives, ‘now okay, you appreciated my honesty and balls, now I want to see your balls,'” he joke...