Bill Maher’s take on President Donald Trump’s appeal to young white men stems from years of “shaming” and an experience defined by “backlash.”
“You’ve only seen ‘white men bad!'”
A conversation on culture and quotas eventually came around to the president on the latest installment of the comedian’s “Club Random” podcast. Having discussed Hollywood’s movement toward selective casting for representation, the host and guest, actor Joel Edgerton, eventually came around to the intersection of politics, where Maher suggested Trump’s in-road with white young men in particular came from not making them “feel guilty just for being born with a d*ck.”
“You know, there’s just so much of, like, this shaming. You know, people wonder why so many young men vote for Trump,” said Maher after pointing out that people can’t change who they are. “Well, maybe because, you know, he’s one guy who doesn’t make you feel guilty just for being born with a d*ck. You know? It’s true! It’s a lot of his appeal. They make you feel, you know, a lot of — not me, I’m old enough to remember when it was the reverse, so I get the backlash.”
BILL MAHER: “People wonder why so many young men vote for Trump. Well, maybe because he’s one guy who doesn’t make you feel guilty just for being born with a dick.” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/xkCCqcqTF2
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 12, 2026
“If you’re 22, you don’t remember a time when it was the reverse. So, you’ve only seen the backlash. You’ve only seen ‘white men bad!'” added the host, as his guest addressed meritocracy in response. “Go, ‘I’m all for inclusivity,’ and then you speak to the same person, like a few months later, and like, ‘I’m f*cking terrified.’ And it’s like, why don’t you just be f*cking good at what you do?”
At another point in the interview, Maher had asserted, “There’s too much guilt. There’s no reason for you to feel guilt. I’m sure you’re, like, a better parent to your kids than, like, everybody was in my era as far as, like, how much time you spend with them. I mean, my parents in that generation, they didn’t feel any obligation. It’s like, ‘We brought you into this world. You have a roof. You have clothes. You have food. And you have your own life.'”
“And we were better. I had such a free-range childhood of doing whatever the f*ck I wanted. ‘Just be home by 6. That’s when dinner is,'” he went on.
The comedian was not without a leftist angle during the conversation, as, amid all the talk of merit and the need to reassert its importance in society, he still believed there to be a need for reparations.
Circling back to the casting conversation, Edgerton argued, “Sometimes the pendulum swings so far, you’re like, ‘Now should I be nervous about this?’ The pendulum, like, shifts and changes, but in terms of merit, like merit is just a thing. And it’s like, I mean, I don’t know how you solve that problem, especially two white dudes sitting on armchairs talking about it.”
“Again, that’s the guilt thing that I’m not gonna buy into,” interjected Maher. “Just because we’re white dudes doesn’t mean we can’t have opinions or that we can’t have this discussion,” before harkening back to actor John Leguizamo’s frustration over the casting of Golden Globe Award-winner James Franco in a role as Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Reminding of roles Leguizamo had played, Maher added, ‘That to me is very hypocritical and typical of the far-left woke. They just don’t see it when they — it’s always okay when I’m making fun of it, but I can do it.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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