By Charles Switzer
8:18am PDT, Mar 29, 2025
Maher Opens with 'First True Scandal' of Trump's Presidency
Bill Maher wasted no time addressing what he described as a major blunder within the second
Donald Trump administration on the latest episode of HBO's
Real Time, The Hollywood Reporter shared.
"The first real, true big scandal of the Trump administration," he said, launching his opening monologue with straight-to-the-point commentary.
The controversy in question? A now-notorious
group chat among top U.S. national security officials that mistakenly included
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of
The Atlantic.
Here are four key things the sharp-tongued comic explained.
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The Signal Chat Leak Gets the Maher Treatment
Bill Maher explained the scenario to his audience with disbelief and humor. "The entire national security team was on a group chat," he said, referencing ongoing tensions with the Houthis in Yemen.
"You know, the Houthis in Yemen have been attacking the shipping lanes, so maybe they do need a good bombing. So the entire national security team, I'm talking about the secretary of defense, the vice president, the head of the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, all these people are on this group chat on Signal, which is safer than a normal [messaging service], but I have it. It's not like it's super secure."
He further observed, "So they're on this group chat, the defense team, and they loop in a reporter who they say was in some guy's contact list."
Maher couldn't resist comparing the officials' mistake to teenage phone habits, quipping, "So today, every teenager in America is saying, 'And you're worried about our screen time?'"
Emojis and Inappropriate Casualness in Defense Communications
Bill Maher went further in criticizing how lightly these high-level officials treated sensitive information. "Again, this is our defense team, the national security people, the adults, and they're all using emojis. You know, flames and biceps and fist bumps," he said.
Imagining how they might react to a failed mission, he added, "What were they gonna do if the mission failed? P*** emoji, facepalm [emoji]."
He sarcastically praised the return of "adult" leadership, saying, "Yes, thank God we got rid of Sleepy
Joe [Biden] and the adults are back in charge." Then, in a crude twist, Maher joked, "Mr. Vice President, you're gonna want to see this. It's a picture of my d***."
Maher Responds to Trump's Defense of the Leak
The comedian also mocked President Donald Trump's attempt to downplay the seriousness of the leaked messages. Trump reportedly stated the contents "was nothing classified" and "weren't war plans, they were attack plans."
To that, Bill Maher replied bluntly: "B****, please." He continued, "Come on, man. Nobody has been fired over this, and every D-lister in Hollywood is like, 'Where was this mercy when I was on The Apprentice?'"
Fallout from the Leak and Real Time's Featured Guests
In the days following the incident,
The Atlantic published
the actual Signal chat messages that discussed plans for striking Houthi targets in Yemen.
Bill Maher concluded his episode by hosting an eclectic panel that included California Governor
Gavin Newsom, linguist and Columbia professor
John McWhorter and political commentator
Rikki Schlott — each contributing to the evening's analysis and debate.
