Bill Maher has a blunt message for Democrats heading into the next election cycle: tell Hollywood celebrities to shut up.
The “Real Time” host says the entertainment industry’s obsession with virtue signaling and woke posturing is doing the Democratic Party more harm than good — and driving ordinary voters straight into the arms of Republicans.
“Hollywood is sort of the epicenter of the woke left,” Maher told The California Post. “I don’t think they’re doing the Democratic Party any favors. If Democrats want to win elections in the future, job one: tell the celebrities to just shut the f—k up. You’re not helping. You don’t strike people in most of the country as sensible or in touch with reality.”
Maher’s refusal to toe the progressive party line has increasingly made him a pariah in parts of Hollywood. Once embraced as a liberal icon, he now finds himself frozen out for calling out what he sees as excesses of the modern left.
“I speak freely, and this woke town f–king hates that,” Maher said on his Club Random podcast. “And that’s okay. I’ve made my peace with that.”
His critics include fellow comedian Wanda Sykes, who took a public swipe at him during the Golden Globes earlier this month. While presenting the award for best stand-up comedy performance — for which Maher was nominated for his HBO special Is Anyone Else Seeing This? — Sykes mocked him from the stage.
“Bill Maher, you give us so much,” she quipped. “But I would love a little less.”
When Ricky Gervais won the award in Maher’s category, Sykes twisted the knife further, joking that Gervais would like to thank “God — and the trans community,” a jab at the British comic’s controversial material.
Maher wasn’t surprised he lost.
“I speak freely, and this town hates that,” he said. “That’s why I knew I wasn’t going to win.”
He also slammed the Golden Globes for snubbing Joe Rogan from its new podcast category, calling it “typical, predictable, and ridiculous.”
“It’s absurd that Rogan wouldn’t be nominated in a category that he dominates,” Maher said.
Politically, Maher describes himself as a heterodox thinker — sometimes siding with the left, sometimes with the right. He lives in Beverly Hills but has been increasingly vocal about what he sees as the failures of progressive governance in California.
After the devastating Los Angeles wildfires last year, Maher blamed part of the fallout on what he called “unforced errors” by state and local leaders.
“It’s not wrong to associate some of these disasters with the things normies hate about uber-progressive politics,” he said. “Questionable budget priorities, high taxes that get you nothing, making everything about identity politics, virtue signaling overseas instead of fixing things at home.”
While he’s critical of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, he stops short of demonizing her.
“Do I think she’s done a great job? No,” Maher said. “But all cities are messy.”
Maher argues that California has suffered from one-party rule and needs a political reset toward the center.
“It’s not good when one party completely controls anything,” he said. “That’s true of Democrats here and Republicans in Washington, who are now drunk with power and overstepping their bounds. I would love to see both sides marginalize their crazies.”
He says he still likes Gov. Gavin Newsom — who appeared on Real Time last year — but wishes he would govern more like a centrist.
“I think Gavin is a really great politician,” Maher said. “I’m always imploring him to move to the center. If a Democrat like Newsom moves toward the middle, it’s good for the party and good for the country.”
Maher is indifferent to Newsom’s recent embrace of edgy humor and viral AI memes.
“It’s silly,” he said. “It’s political theater. It makes no difference in an election.”
Despite being a longtime Trump critic, Maher says he refuses to let his identity revolve around hating the former president — a thinly veiled shot at Hollywood’s obsession with Trump.
“My whole personality isn’t just Trump,” he said. “I don’t have Trump derangement syndrome. I don’t hate everything he does. But there’s a lot I don’t like, and I’m going to call it out.”
He also offered a mixed review of the current administration’s performance.
“I really don’t like what’s going on with ICE. I really don’t like the political retribution,” he said. “But Venezuela? Do I hate it? No, not completely.”
Maher even accused the left of hypocrisy for reflexively opposing Trump’s efforts to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.
“If you claim to hate oppression, well, that’s a pretty big boot to lift off people’s heads,” he said. “If Cuba goes next, that would be good.”
Now back for its 24th season on HBO, Real Time with Bill Maher is once again shaped by the gravitational pull of Donald Trump.
“It’s a new year, but Trump still controls the agenda,” Maher said. “We didn’t think it would be Greenland, but it is this week. We didn’t think it would be war in Minneapolis, but it is.”
Love him or loathe him, Maher shows no sign of retreating into silence.
“I don’t hate everything,” he said. “I’m not consumed by Trump. But when something’s wrong, I’m going to say it — even if Hollywood hates me for it.”
