Maher admits he was wrong about Trump’s tariffs and economic impact

Liberal comedian Bill Maher admitted that he was wrong about President Donald Trump on tariffs in a podcast posted Monday, and he’s “got to own it” because the economy is thriving. 

Maher made the admission on his “Club Random” podcast as he explained that he’s always truthful with his audience during a conversation with progressive YouTube host Brian Tyler Cohen.

“Just to take an example, tariffs. Now I remember that I, along with probably most people, was saying at the beginning, ‘Oh, you know, by the 4th of July… the economy was going to be tanked by then,’ and I was kind of like, ‘Well, that seems right to me,’” Maher said. 

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“But, that didn’t happen,” Maher said. “It could happen tomorrow. I’m just saying, that’s reality, so let’s work first from the reality of that, not from ‘I just hate Donald Trump,’ because that’s boring and doesn’t get us anywhere and leads you to dishonesty.”

Maher added, “The truth is, I don’t know what his strategy is but, look, the stock market is at record highs… I also drive around. I don’t see a country in a depression at all. I see people just out there living their lives.

“I would have thought, and I’ve got to own it, that these tariffs were going to f—–g sink this economy by this time, and they didn’t. How do we deal with that fact? Because that’s the fact.” 

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Cohen responded that the tariff saga is an example of why he stopped making bold predictions. 

“If I was good at predicting things, Hillary [Clinton] would have been the president in 2016,” Cohen said. 

In April, Maher took a swipe at Trump over his “completely a– backwards” approach to China and suggested he was rooting for a recession to get him to reverse course.

“I just feel like he picked a fight with the wrong bully,” Maher said at the time. 

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Trump has slapped a slew of tariffs on countries across the globe since taking office, aiming to rebalance what he calls unfair trade deals that take advantage of the United States. 

Maher challenged one of Trump’s central tariff arguments in March. 

“I have one basic question: Why do we want to bring back manufacturing?” Maher asked his “Real Time” panel. “It’s so 70s, you know? I mean, that ship has sailed. You know, there are countries that make jeans for $11. We’re never going to be that country again.” 

“China’s moving into the AI age, and he wants to go back to manufacturing, which, by the way, if you create new jobs, who’s going to take them? Robots,” Maher continued. “That’s who’s going to take them anyway! He acts like progress itself is woke.”

Averting a protracted trade war, Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade deal between the U.S. and European Union on Sunday that set a 15-percent tariff on most EU goods imported into the U.S.

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.