Bill Maher is flaming mad over Donald Trump’s handling of the Los Angeles wildfires.
The “Real Time” host dedicated a good portion of his opening monologue on Friday to excoriating the president over his continued threats to withhold aid from California.
“He’s quite an expert on what we should do here about the fires,” Maher said, sarcastically. “He said, ‘I don’t think we should give California anything, aid he’s talking about– until they let the water flow down.'”
At this point, the host had to collect himself. He stumbled briefly before launching into a rant about the president of the United States singling out citizens for punishment over political disagreements.
“I said I wasn’t going to lose it this year, but…You’re not giving us anything! We’re Americans!” he said. “This isn’t a casino when you’re comping a room.”
Maher tried to explain several situations to the president before throwing up his hands. He gave in to the reality that Trump is playing a role for the cameras and needs to be seen as being tough on California as a sop to his hard-hearted base.
“F**k it, just do your dance and get out,” he said.
Maher has been critical of California politicians’ handling of the wildfires himself. Earlier this month, he called Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass the “Nero of American politics” and laid into his home state for failing to prepare for the fires. Bemoaning his “exorbitant” tax rate, Maher pointed toward long-stalled transit projects as an avatar of California’s failure to make good on promises.
“California is a place that spends money and gets nothing, which is why you may have noticed when the fires broke out, no one escaped by high-speed rail,” he said at the time.
Watch Maher’s message to Trump below:
