Bill Maher Talks Trump Administration’s ‘Ridiculous and Horrible’ Layoffs

Dan Clarendon February 15, 2025, 9:57 am

Comments

Bill Maher, Donald Trump — Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Real Time on Friday night, Bill Maher said his audience was fired up because of their upcoming three-day weekend. “You’re going to have Monday off, right?” he said at the start of his monologue in the HBO show’s February 14 episode. “[It’s] President’s Day. All government offices will be closed, although I think that was the plan anyway.”

Indeed, Maher devoted much of his monologue to the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal government workers. “This is week four of Hulk smash,” Maher quipped. “The administration that dissects a frog with a hand grenade. This is their method.”

He went on: “America is in shock that the guy whose catchphrase was ‘You’re fired’ is firing everybody in government. ‘He wants to suck our blood? That is not what I voted for when I voted for Dracula.’ Maybe this is why Gen Z’s approval rating of Trump has dropped 30 points in one month. Hey, kids, a little tip, the time to pay attention is before the election.”

Maher said he himself believes government is too bloated. “But the way they’re doing it is ridiculous and horrible,” he added. “And now they went — maybe this is the one that’s too far — they went and fired almost everybody in the agency that’s responsible for maintaining our nuclear weapons. Fired. And then, of course, they had to walk that back, as somebody said, ‘This is a national security crisis.’ Duh.”

The comedian also referenced Elon Musk and his staffers’ access to government systems. “We were so scared that the government was going to turn into The Handmaid’s Tale that we didn’t see that the big threat was from the guys on The Big Bang Theory,” Maher said.

Later in the episode, guest Kid Rock left Bill Maher speechless with a diatribe about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. The singer and rapper claimed he understands hip-hop culture “a little bit more” than other white people.

“I’m like, [Lamar] pretty much came out figuratively with both middle fingers in the air, doing what he does for the people who love what he does, unapologetically,” he said. “And I don’t think he gives a frog’s fat ass what anyone thinks about it. … So I go, huh, it’s pretty much how I built my whole career. I gotta respect it.”

Bill Maher Says NFL Coverage on Streaming Is ‘Worst of All Worlds’

But then Kid Rock said Lamar and halftime-show producer Jay-Z owe a debt of gratitude to Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback who famously kneeled during the national anthem at NFL games to protest racial inequality and police brutality.

“I think Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar should both send Colin Kaepernick a Bundt cake and a six-pack of beer and a thank-you note with a bunch of money in it, because without him kneeling and getting everyone’s panties in a bunch over the anthem, [myself] included, I don’t think that happens.”

Kid Rock also said Lamar’s performance was “the epitome of [diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts] blowing up.”

He explained: “Jay-Z in there booking this, and, like, Kendrick Lamar goes out there and basically turns DEI into an IED. It’s like all Black people or all people of color, speaking to his crowd in the hood, Black people. It was like the most exclusive thing ever, and I’m like, ‘F*** yeah, that’s awesome.’ I’m laughing my ass off.’”

Maher, in response, chuckled and stammered as he tried to process Kid Rock’s assessment.

Real Time With Bill Maher, Fridays, 10/9c, HBO