Bill Maher Debated Swing States and Sex Work

There was an element of the absurd to this week’s Real Time With Bill Maher. Much of that was intentional; Maher’s opening monologue included the mental Image of President Trump spinning a giant wheel of tariffs. Later in the night, panelist Batya Ungar-Sargon declared herself to be “a MAGA leftist.” Maher’s response? “Well, that makes no sense.”

And while much of this week’s discussion focused on the current state of the nation, Maher also had his eyes on the near future, with Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, showing up as the episode’s first guest. Maher asked Shapiro if he planned to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 2028. Shapiro said he had no plans to — but for someone who has no designs on national office, he did spend a lot of time talking about his ability to bridge different factions, whether that was across party lines in his state or different constituents within his party.

“We’re delivering results in the ultimate swing state in the nation,” Shapiro told Maher. He went on to discuss the effects of tariffs on farming and manufacturing in his state.

After Shapiro left the stage, Maher was joined by Ungar-Sargon — who alluded to her forthcoming book Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women — and The Bulwark’s Sam Stein. Each guest had their own ideological lane, and it led to some memorable political debate, including when Stein countered Ungar-Sargon’s enthusiasm for Trump’s foreign policy by pointing out that the president’s designs on Canada and Greenland certainly count as “foreign intervention.”

Stein also spoke critically about this administration’s cuts to scientific research. “If we want to talk about progress, that is the place where we’ve led for decades, and now we’re going to be lapped by China because of the things that happened in the last eight weeks,” he said.

While Ungar-Sargon spoke approvingly of Trump’s second term thus far, she did reveal one area where she didn’t see eye-to-eye with him. “I’m not going to defend Elon Musk,” she said. “I’m not a big fan of his.” That said, that declaration was soon followed by a statement that Musk had become “marginalized.” Maher wasn’t convinced.

“Trump’s selling his cars on the White House lawn!” he said.

Maher began the night’s final segment with a skeptical look at the growing use of the term “sex worker” as opposed to “prostitute,” though he seemed less critical of the phrase itself than the policing of it. He noted that he had, back in his Politically Incorrect days, called for it to be legalized.

“It was certainly not the liberal point of view back then. It was the libertarian point of view,” he recalled. “But in America, if you don’t like the position of any particular political faction, just wait — they’ll switch it up.”

By the end of the segment, Maher had covered a lot of rhetorical ground. He argued that the popularity of movies set against the backdrop of this industry says more about our society than we might want to believe. His comments also included an endorsement of Sean Baker’s filmography, albeit a qualified one — “I think Sean is a huge talent — but he does think about whores a lot” — as well as a blistering criticism of Andrew Tate.

“The language may have changed, but the job hasn’t,” Maher said. There’s a much larger conversation to be had there — but we’ll see if Real Time returns to it any time soon.

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Other notable moments from this week’s episode:

Maher on all things financial: “The stock market has lost five trillion dollars in three weeks. Trump: he’s the Ozempic of the economy.”
Maher on the lack of small talk this week: “Things are rough! We don’t have time to fuck around.”
Maher on Mahmoud Khalil: “I don’t agree with his point of view, but — you know what? If you’re an honest person, you have to defend him if you believe in free speech.”
Stein on the aftereffects of the pandemic: “We got too comfortable with death.”
Maher on his personal health concerns: “The thing I worry most about in this world is plastic. Plastic in my brain.” Which is very relatable, honestly.