Bill Maher Says Trump Is ‘One of the Most Effective Politicians’ Because People ‘Can Smell a Phony a Mile Away’ | Video

Bill Maher believes that no matter what people think about President Donald Trump, they should at least agree he is one of the most “effective politicians.”

Speaking to Chris Cuomo on the most recent episode of “Club Random” podcast, released Sunday, Maher argued that a key to Trump’s continued success is, essentially, that he keeps it real in a way almost no other politician does.

“Trump is one of the most effective politicians, whatever you think of the policy or him as a person, just as a politician,” the host said. “Just understanding that always lean in to being more who you are. The people are not savvy about issues but they smell a phony a mile away. That kind of s–t? Nobody else does it.”

“There’s a couple of times when – I mean, look, I’ve been his biggest critic for good reason and when he got reelected I said, ‘I’m not going to pre-hate anything.’ And then the first week, I said ‘well there’s lots of things I hate because I do,'” Maher continued. “But the way he can do that, and sometimes make me go, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to give it up.'”

Maher referred to Trump’s (apparently highly embellished) account of basically threatening a Taliban official during negotiations for a U.S. withdrawal as one such moment, another being Trump’s bellicose rhetoric after 9/11.

Trump “has these moments no other politician has,” Maher continued, adding that “Democrats need to find that guy” for themselves.

Watch the full conversation below:

The pair then turned to Trump’s assassination attempt back in July 2024. Cuomo asserted that the president was shot in the head, which prompted Maher to correct him and note Trump was actually nicked in the ear. “He did not get shot in the head, if he did this country would probably be in a civil war right now,” Maher said.

Their conversation about Trump’s effectiveness as a politician came amid very turbulent economic news, as his recently-announced global tariffs have sparked chaos on the stock market that among other things erased around $5.4 trillion over Thursday and Friday. .

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