Oscar-Week “Real Time With Bill Maher” Took On Foreign Policy

It’s not unusual for Real Time With Bill Maher to talk about the upcoming Academy Awards when it’s Oscar week. And, sure enough, Bill Maher did indeed bring up the Oscars in his opening monologue this week, along with a few jokes scattered throughout the episode. But if you were looking for comments from a big name behind a highly-touted film — well, that was a few episodes ago when Jesse Eisenberg stopped by. This week, Maher and his guests had something else on their minds.

Specifically, they had foreign policy and the United States’ relationship to its allies to discuss. This came on the heels of an unsettling White House meeting between the heads of state of U.S. and Ukraine, as well as President Trump’s tariffs and “51st state” rhetoric directed at Canada.

Up first was the Honorable Chrystia Freeland, a member of Canada’s Parliament who’s seeking to become the leader of that country’s Liberal Party. “I take it seriously, and Canadians do too,” she said in regards to a question about Trump’s rhetoric.

Maher stressed that he was supportive of Canadian efforts to push back against Trump’s comments, at one point declaring himself “Team Drake.” But he also lamented the way that certain qualities of American politics seemed to be making their way north. “This is sad for me,” he said, “that people in Canada are losing their polite.”

That fateful White House meeting mentioned earlier came up during the panel discussion, for which Maher was joined by CNN host and author Fareed Zakaria and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Zakaria referred to the shift in U.S. policy as a “bizarre moral reversion,” while Emanuel noted that the heated tones at the aforementioned meeting “[looked] like the Emanuel family at Thanksgiving.”

He soon turned more serious, though, raising concerns over the possible implications of a loss of global American influence, including increased nuclear proliferation. And he was skeptical of the upcoming federal budget. “The last thing that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and everyone who was at the Inauguration needs is another tax cut,” he said.

Jesse Eisenberg Joined Bill Maher to Talk “A Real Pain,” Woody Allen and Tech CEOs

This week’s “Real Time” blended Oscar talk with election post-mortems

By the end of the episode, one might wonder what an answer to all of this might look like. In his final segment, Maher made the case for a John Fetterman presidential run, arguing that he has a crucial blend of “authenticity, balls and charisma.”

Though he did also take a few jabs at Fetterman’s sartorial approach, which he called “a look that says: ‘I’m just like you. I’ve given up.’” He later observed that “John’s the only person in America who goes to CVS for the clothes.”

In Maher’s opening monologue, he stated, “In World War III news, we’re on the other side now.” That blend of very bleak humor resonated throughout the night.

Other notable moments from the episode:

Maher on the current situation in U.S. politics: “The problem we have is the man who is running this country is hell-bent on sowing chaos, and Trump is doing nothing to stop him.”
Maher on a certain high-profile CEO: “Come back to normal, Elon. What the fuck happened?”
New Rules took a lighter touch, with Maher weighing in on people buying live chickens online: “Someone must order a chicken and an egg and let us know which one came first.”