Photo: HBO screenshot
In this Friday’s Real Time monologue, Bill Maher called out the “f*cking hypocrites” who bought into White House excuses for President Trump’s sharing of a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle as apes.
Said video was shared by POTUS late Thursday night and remained up for nearly 12 hours, until a deafening backlash led to its removal.
At first, White House press sec Karoline Leavitt on Friday morning argued, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.” Addressing the press, she said “please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Later in the day, though, the administration changed their story, with a press rep saying: “A White House staffer erroneously made the post” on behalf of Trump. “It has been taken down.”
Speaking to the controversy that dominated Friday’s headlines, Maher in his monologue noted, “Trump did a Roseanne,” then first went for the jokes.
“The defense from the administration I thought was lame, that he did not meant hit Share” on the meme, Maher said, “he meant to hit Like.”
Then, though, Maher dug into the paper-thin Lion King defense.
“Two things are a little wrong with this…,” he contended. “One, there are no apes in The Lion King.
“And two,” he continued “if it’s a cartoon character, it’s okay now? … So it’s okay if somebody made a cartoon of Elmer Fudd shooting Charlie Kirk? That would be okay, you f*cking hypocrites?”
Trump, when asked on Friday afternoon about the Truth Social post, claimed he didn’t see the whole video. “I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud… how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people [who handle his social media]. Generally, they look at the whole. But I guess somebody didn’t.”‘Asked if he condemned the clip, Trump told reporters, “Of course I do”—though he stopped well short of apologizing for… well, whatever happened.’Asked if he condemned the clip, Trump told reporters, “Of course I do”—though he stopped well short of apologizing for… well, whatever happened.
Asked if he condemned the clip, Trump told reporters, “Of course I do”—though he stopped well short of apologizing for… well, whatever happened.’Asked if he condemned the clip, Trump told reporters, “Of course I do”—though he stopped well short of apologizing for… well, whatever happened.
“I didn’t make a mistake,” he insisted. “I look at a lot of, thousands of things, I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine.”
Watch Maher’s monologue below; the Trump/Obamas section starts at 2:00.
Trump shared a video depicting the Obamas as apes. In his defense, he didn’t mean to hit “share.” He just meant to hit “like.” pic.twitter.com/XD3KHJ3Hlx
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) February 7, 2026
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