Bill Maher isn’t always — or, arguably, even often — correct, but when he’s right, he’s right. On Friday’s episode of Real Time, the HBO host and commentator returned to a subject he’s been talking about since before virtually everyone else: Donald Trump attempting a coup. He’s been warning he’d do it since around 2018, and lo and behold, that’s what (almost certainly) happened since he lost re-election almost a year ago. But Maher warned, just because his last coup failed doesn’t mean he’s done.
Maher used the ending of the episode to remind viewers about the terrifying memo attorney John Eastman wrote late last year, outlining how former VP Mike Pence could help Trump overturn the election results and remain in power. (And just to think, the reason we still have a functioning democracy may be because of Dan Quayle.) He reminded people that Trump unsuccessfully tried to convince Republican election officials to go along with his dastardly scheme.
“And that’s what he’s been working on fixing ever since,” Maher told the crowd. He says he’s spent his post-presidential life “figuring out how to pull off the coup he couldn’t pull off last time.”
Maher then laid out the “easiest predictions in the world” for the next few years. Trump will, he claims, run for president again, clinch the Republican nomination, and will announce he’s won no matter what happens on Election Night 2024.
“He’s like a shark who’s not gone but has quietly gone out to sea,” he said. “But he’s been eating people this whole time.” By “eating people,” he meant he’s been “methodically purging the Republican party of anyone who voted for his impeachment or doesn’t he agree he’s the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.”
Maher then laid out, year by year, how Trump could replace all quisling Republicans with loyalists, how Republicans could take back the House (if not the Senate, too) in the 2022 midterms, and how Democrats will still treat the 2024 election like business-as-usual. It’s a bracing watch, from someone who was right about this issue before, and he ended with an apropos “I think I scared the s*it out of you.”
Of course, in the same episode, Maher made sure to throw in some trans jokes. But then, he is Bill Maher.
You can watch the segment in the video above.