Recent weeks of “Real Time with Bill Maher” have seen the acerbic comic grill probable Democratic presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom for suing Fox News, comparing the California governor’s litigiousness to Trump, and joking that the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s purported suicide note sounds an awful lot like his good pal Trump.
On Friday night’s edition of his HBO show, Maher focused his monologue on President Trump’s state visit to China, where he met with its country’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing (and Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner, who has a number of sexual-misconduct allegations, appeared in photos in the Epstein files, and directed the “Melania” doc, was along for the ride). Trump and Xi “discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation between our two countries, including expanding market access for American businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment into our industries,” according to the administration.
But mostly, it was an old-fashioned lovefest between the two strongmen, with Trump in particular showering Xi with one strange platitude after another.
“Trump: he hates China, but he loves Xi,” said Maher. “To say this was a lovefest between these two guys was an understatement. As he left, [Trump] thanked Xi profusely for his hospitality. And Xi thanked Trump for making China way more popular around the world.”
Trump loves pageantry, after all, and since Xi rolled out the red carpet for him, Maher believes that that’s why Trump was so soft and lovey-dovey toward the leader of a country that he’s been locked in a bitter trade war with for the past year and a half.
“You know what? China knows what Trump likes,” offered Maher. “What does he like? He likes the pomp and the parades, and he likes the red carpet, and there were thousands of children waving American flags. And Xi, he’s clever, you know? He knows. He bargained like someone who knows he holds the cards now ever since Trump backed down on their big trade war.”
Then, the punchline: “In fact, as a subtle dig, they served orange chicken.”
Maher wasn’t finished.
“Trump says with Xi, there’s no games with him. It’s getting a little weird, you know?” cracked Maher. “At one point, Xi told his translator, ‘Tell Trump, don’t catch feelings.’”
Leave a Reply