During Donald Trump’s meteoric rise to political prominence, there has been one television personality who is decidedly not in his corner. Comedian Bill Maher is not known for pulling punches, but he’s really expressed himself during this election. The host of the popular HBO program has been speaking out about how he feels that Trump’s divisive rhetoric has changed the country for the worse.
Recently, he sat down for a chat with Fareed Zakaria about the current climate. Consistently invoking Trump’s propensity for living in an alternative reality, Maher also pointed out that Trump’s insistence that the election is “rigged” is a very inflammatory statement—and very bad for the health of the American democracy. He points out that fact that reality star Trump has amassed a loyal army of ignorant followers who are known for their xenophobic and sexist views.
Using Hillary Clinton’s phrase “basket of deplorables” to describe these kinds of Trump fans, Maher expressed his belief that they’re not going away anytime soon. In fact, he stated that Trump is now like Caesar crossing the Rubicon, with all of his minions watching his every move closely.
With all indicators predicting a Clinton win, Maher believes that Trump is not going to go away if he loses the election. Instead, he sees the former reality star turning into a “Che Guevara of deplorables” and continuing to spread his strange message through any medium he can.