Bill Maher Says Trump Administration ‘F***ed Up a Lot’ With Iran War
What To Know
- Bill Maher criticized the Trump administration for mishandling the Iran war, saying they missed their opportunity.
- He highlighted the high death toll from the regime’s crackdown.
- Maher called for ending the war cleanly and previously dismissed Trump’s claims of victory.
Real Time host Bill Maher has shared his thoughts on the ongoing war in Iran, saying he believes President Donald Trump and his administration “missed their window” to overthrow the regime.
Appearing on Billy Bush‘s Hot Mics podcast on Wednesday (May 27), the comedian noted how there was “still a possibility that the regime will be overthrown” before adding, “My personal feeling is they missed their window.”
“They should have started the war when the people were in the streets, because that was the time to do it,” Maher said, per Mediaite, referring to the protests against Iran’s regime in late 2025 and early 2026. “They waited until the regime killed all those people in the streets, waited a couple of months, and then all of those people who would be there to lead the revolution… they’re all gone now.”
According to several organizations, including the Washington-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, the total death toll in Iran is estimated to range from 6,488 people to upwards of 36,500 people. Trump himself has claimed 42,000 people were murdered.
Maher said there could be an outside chance that Israel is “planning something big” to “surprise” everyone with an attack that would take out Iran’s remaining leaders. However, he believes it’s time to just wrap the war up.
“I thought it was a good idea to try,” the Club Random podcast host stated. “I thought they f***ed up a lot of actually doing it, and now let’s not make a bad situation worse. Let’s get out of this as cleanly as we can, and we’ll try again at some point, if we have to.”
Maher criticized Trump’s war on Iran on his HBO show last month, saying, “It’s gotten a little Groundhog Day, hasn’t it? It’s kind of the same story every week. We’re seizing their boats. They’re seizing our boats. It’s less like a war and more like a Florida divorce. It’s kind of become a war of, ‘You block me? No, I block you. Strait of Hormuz? You think you can f*** it up. Well, we can f*** it up.'”
He also slammed the president for his repeated claims that the U.S. won the war. “We didn’t. Hormuz is not open. The people did not do an uprising. The regime is still in place. We did not win, sorry,” Maher said. “And in social media, he keeps rubbing their noses in the victory we don’t have. Every day, he Tweets out stuff that’s inflammatory and contradictory, and bulls*** claims.”
Conversation3 Comments
Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.
Register or sign in to join the conversation.
-
M
Bill Maher's problem isn't just that he's wrong about his analysis most of the time (although to be fair, not this time ... entirely, at least), it's that he's profoundly ignorant about both the history and news surrounding that analysis almost ALL of the time. He doesn't read enough or understand enough for his opinions to be anything more than the alcoholic idiot ranting at the end of the bar, slurring his proclamations about what he would do if he ran the world. He's insulated by his celebrity and wealth (which doesn't have to be fatal to thoughtful ideas) AND he's deluded by his own conceit (which IS almost always fatal to useful dialogue). I'm not saying that Maher doesn't represent the mindset of a lot of other people out there (he does) ... I'm saying that he's lazy, ill-informed, narcissistic and not helpful to anyone looking for info to guide their own thoughts about politics or current events. Hank (above) is exactly correct.
-
A
@Hank Part 2 So you’re saying that the Over 10 Million Immigrants that Biden let in don’t have to have food, clothing, place to live, medical help, transportation etc. ? Of Course they do. Who’s gonna pay for that ? And YES I know for a Fact that they are beating Legal Immigrants out of They’re jobs and businesses by offering Subpar Quality of work for Subpar pay. They are Ruining Legal Immigrants communities. And we only know of the 10 million we Don’t know how many got in without our knowledge. Democrats tell their voters we’ll give you Free this and Free that. When they Know there’s no such thing as Free. Who pays ? Mainly Conservative blue collar workers !! While Dems are out Protesting every thing and burning/destroying both public and private property, Assaulting Law Enforcement, Assaulting Innocent bystanders and of course the obligatory Looting. Even now Mamdani plans to TAKE people’s property who legally own it and redistribute it to who HE calls “responsible stewards”. That’s open code for Free housing. The Dem mantra: Don’t strive to be exceptional just let our Dem politicians TAKE what someone else Earned. That’s today’s Dem party.
-
H
You know what? I’m 55 years old. You want to know how long Bibi has been saying Iran is weeks away from a bomb? For 40 years of my life. Fact: We had a good deal in place from Obama that Trump tore up in his first term, because, well, Obama. Engaging in an unjust, unprovoked, unnecessary war is the biggest self-own since Vietnam. Gas prices, inflation, skyrocketing rents, stagnating wages…when will you people wake up and learn Republicans are bad for the economy (the stock market is not the economy, consumerism is the economy in a capitalist society like the US)? That’s not hyperbole. It’s fact. The most job gains and wage growth happens under Dems. The most job losses and wage stagnation happens under Reps. Look it up. Stop believing that immigrants are coming for your jobs (they’re not), and that we can’t have universal health care (we can), or that trans people are the boogeyman (really?). The time is now to save humanity from the hateful rot that has infected many of us. If we don’t, we’ll be the next beings that’ll go extinct.
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services