Late-night talk show host Bill Maher unloaded on Donald Trump, one of the newest GOP presidential candidates, Friday night, calling him a “Frankenstein monster that was created with the tea party” who isn’t going away anytime soon.
“This is your worst nightmare,” Mr. Maher said on his HBO Show “Real Time,” Mediaite reported Friday.
Media pundits have called Mr. Trump’s campaign a joke, but Mr. Maher argued that Mr. Trump’s brash nature would give him staying power in 2016.
“He never apologizes, he’s never wrong, no matter what crazy thing he says. He’s the white Kanye,” Mr. Maher joked, Mediaite reported.
Mr. Maher also took a swipe at the tea party saying, “For a party whose base adores belligerence, this is the guy.”
Mr. Maher called the billionaire businessman and reality TV star the “id” of the Republican party.
Michael Eric Dyson — an author, radio host and professor of sociology at Georgetown University — replied that adding “-iot” would be a more accurate descriptor of Mr. Trump.
But both Mr. Maher and Mr. Dyson said Mr. Trump could play a big role in the 2016 cycle by overshadowing other candidates with his arrogant demeanor.
“But Donald Trump is no idiot in this sense. He understands how to work his audience. He understands how to be not wrong but right, and he understands his failure to apologize is the kind of John Wayne persona that George W. Bush had, and that kind of swagger is what so much of those people are looking for,” Mr. Dyson said.
“I’m telling you when he’s on the stage with those other nine people, they’re just going to cower so that he doesn’t pick on them next,” Mr. Maher added.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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