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Everyone is applauding Trump - Bill Maher doesn't want to join in.
Bill Maher is considered a Democrat, but has repeatedly criticized his party recently. However, the fact that Americans are now calling on him to switch sides leaves the presenter cold: he has no desire for Trump's personality cult.
The protagonist of "Real Time with Bill Maher" is actually a Democrat. However, the 69-year-old has recently fired shots at his own party in particular, which he has repeatedly accused of naivety, lack of reality and do-gooderism in recent months.
As a result, he has been approached by Republicans and asked why Maher does not want to join them, the New Yorker reported in his latest show. "Let me give you the short answer," says Maher: "Because I don't want to live in North Korea."
"Maximum suck-up": Bill Maher doesn't want to live in a Western North Korea.
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Why is that? "Kim Jong-un has state hacks who follow him everywhere, write his brilliant ideas in a notebook and applaud," the late-night host continues, "Well, Republicans - that's you now."
Indeed, Trump's fellow party members are currently courting the president's favor with all sorts of crude advances: Congressman Addison McDowell from North Carolina, for example, had suggested naming Dulles International Airport near Washington after Trump. "It will be like other airports, except that there will only be departures in the international terminal," blasphemes Maher.
There is also a law calling for Trump's face to be immortalized on Mount Rushmore, he adds. "Because like [George] Washington, he's a patriot, like Teddy Roosevelt, he's a renegade - and like Abraham Lincoln, he's not really helping the theater scene in Washington D.C."
Trump's dances once made people laugh. Today they are copied.
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The background: while Lincoln was shot in a theater, Trump has taken over the leadership of the Kennedy Center in the capital. The cultural institution has been battling headwinds ever since. And he doesn't actually care about the Kennedy Center, says Maher. What he does care about is that a US president wants to run such an institution personally.
Trump's press spokesman Steven Cheung, however, puts the icing on the cake: He thinks the whole thing is justified because Trump "is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of dynamic colors, while others often paint in pale pastels."
"Republicans now dance like Trump, they name weapons systems [like the upcoming F-47 fighter jet] after him, they even dress like him - with the signature suit and tie exclusive to Banana Republic: All these super macho guys are kissing another man's a****," Maher etches.
Republicans imitate Trump's look.
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Some would even speak like Trump - "with the crazy, exaggerated exaggerations". For example, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said of the US tariffs: "This program is the most important America has ever had." "Take that, Emancipation Proclamation [abolishing slavery] and Louisiana Purchase," says Maher.
And that's not all: Trump's birthday should become an official holiday, demands Republican Claudia Tenney. Party colleague Brandon Gill wants Trump's likeness to adorn the 100-dollar bill in future. "We don't do that here, people," the presenter implores the audience.
"He's still in office: can we wait to see how it turns out before we immortalize him on a stamp?" Maher continues: "If I admit that there's a Trump derangement syndrome on the left, will you admit that it's deranged too?"
Maher with (still) imaginary Trump stamp
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To people on the right who would tell him that they don't always agree with him but respect him for his opposition to the left and his honesty, Maher calls out: "It's not a one-way street: are you honest?"
As an example, the staunch atheist cites Trump's speech to Congress, in which the 78-year-old claimed that the state had spent "eight million dollars to make mice trans". "He didn't," Maher clarifies: "The eight million was for transgenic mice."
It was about "mice that were genetically modified to study how hormone treatments affect human health". The fact that Trump misunderstood this is not the problem: "What's worrying is that no one close to the president dares to tell him this."
On the wrong track: Donald Trump is turning transgenic mice into trans mice.
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The only thing missing is Trump walking around with his fly open - and his party colleagues all imitating him instead of calling him out on it. This scenario fits with the fact that Trump advisor Steven Bannon criticized Chief Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed by Trump, for not showing enough "admiration" during her speech to Congress.
"That's not North Korean at all," says Maher sarcastically: "I know, my Republican friends: when you hear 'cult', you roll your eyes." In a cult, you are told to turn away from friends and family because they could still stop you. "That's why [Scientology disciple] Tom Cruise doesn't talk to his own kid."
It's similar with America: "We say to our closest friend in the whole world: You know what? F*** Canada - for no particular reason." He doesn't know what "Fox News" host Jesse Waters thought twelve weeks ago about an attack on the neighboring country. "And now his message to Canada is, 'Because of the fact that they don't want us to take over, I want an invasion.'"
Maher cannot understand this: "Canada is not threatening us. For God's sake: Their flag is a leaf. Even [podcaster] Joe Rogan, a Trump voter, has said, 'Why are we upset about Canada? This is stupid.' Okay, maga people: that's called thinking for yourself."
blue News
50 states, 330 million people and even more opinions: How are you supposed to "understand America"? If you want to keep an overview without running aground, you need a beacon. The late-night stars offer one of the best navigational aids: They are the perfect pilots, relentlessly naming the shoals of the country and its people, and serve our author Philipp Dahm as a comic compass for the state of the American soul.
At the end of Trump's first term in office, there were still people who corrected him now and then "on small details" - "like: 'You lost the last election'. And now Lauren Boebert and Steve Bannon are suggesting that the party should campaign for a third term. Soon the whole party will be campaigning for this.
It is clear: "Presidents get two terms. No more. No matter how wonderful you think they are. It's written in black and white in the constitution. People, you know that's wrong. You know in your heart that this is the point at which Rome is no longer a republic."
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