HITLER? The president isn't Hitler, he said!

TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2026

What have they done with Bill Maher? What have they done with the real Bill Maher? Inquiring minds wanted to know.    

Before we start to address their question, let the word go forth:   

On this sprawling campus, we vastly admire Bill Maher. Over the years, he developed the ability to drive challenging discussions of serious topics—challenging discussions he was constantly able to leaven with extremely high-end humor. 

Basically, it's impossible to do what Bill learned to do. Rather, to do what he did before his recent epistemic capture—a capture which has seen him dragged, possibly by the Fox News Channel, right through the Overton Window! 

Let us attempt to explain:   

Last Friday night, on Real Time, Bill sat with an august panel for his program's weekly discussion. An interview with Governor Newsom had already occurred.

He started by introducing the panelists. Quickly, though, he gave voice to a somewhat peculiar point of concern:

MAHER (5/1/26): He is a Pulitzer Prize winning opinion columnist for the New York Times. Bret Stephens is over here. And she's the head of King's College, Cambridge, and a columnist for the Financial Times. Gillian Tett.

Okay. Well, let's get the ugly news about the political violence out of the way first, because we have to talk about it. I'm just going to vomit my take on it, and then you can argue.

I would just like to say, if you're one of these people, and there's many in this country, who watched that and was disappointed the president wasn't killed—

[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]

See? They're laughing at that. You're not a good person. Or a smart person. But definitely not a good person. 

I was reading this in your paper, an interview with Governor Pritzker of Illinois, and they asked him, like, well, "What does the next president have to be?" And he said, good, decent, and kind. 

Which, who can disagree with that? And certainly, Trump has often not been good, decent, or kind. 

But he's not Hitler. 

President Trump isn't Hitler, he said. Borrowing from Bill himself, it's hard to see how a serious person could disagree with that!  

It's hard to fashion a simple description for the person Bill had named. Simple decency suggests that the vast sweep of that person's misconduct is often best met with a respectful silence. 

That said, how vast was the sweep of that misconduct?  The leading authority on this being makes an attempt with this:   

Adolf Hitler

[...]

The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political evil." Under Hitler's leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen ("subhumans") or socially undesirable. 

Hitler and the Nazis were also responsible for the deliberate killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre.  

We aren't familiar with all those numbers. But the basic numbers are there.

He felt his nation needed more room. He sought a final solution.  To his credit, Kershaw tried, but we'd say his formulation understates the sweep of the conduct which followed. 

("The things I saw beggar description," General Eisenhower said.)

For the record, Bill was focused, as he started, on the ugly news of the previous weekend—on the attempt at an assassination attempt produced by 31-year-old Cole Allen at the White House Correspondents Dinner. 

Allen's action was upsetting to many people, not excluding us. Bill told Stephens and Tett that they had to start by discussing that event—and he and his panelists proceeded to talk about nothing else!  

We don't always agree with Bill's views, but he's unusually sharp. That said, he was instantly walking the "President Trump isn't Hitler" beat—and he did so several more times as the panel discussion continued:

MAHER: The liberals used to always say, and they were right to say it, that a lot of this very violent rhetoric that we hear on the left, it inspires the borderline personality to then do something. And they were right. I never thought they were wrong.

But the shoe's on the other foot now. I mean, it's on both feet, but you've got to own this kind of rhetoric. And, you know, if you call Trump—

This is why I was against this "he's Hitler" bullshit. I mean, if you really believe that he's a Hitler McPedophile, then you kind of have to kill him. That's the mentality they have.

Later, also this:

MAHER: Once you start with Hitler, it's like any time you do—

We've seen it in many places in the world where they make someone into, whether it's Rwanda or, you know, the Hutus saying the Tutsi were vermin. Or the Hutu—somebody was vermin, I remember.

STEPHENS: The Tutsi were vermin.

MAHER: Whatever it was. Whenever you dehumanize someone to that degree, people are going to go, "Oh, I’m doing the—I’m a hero." 

We agree! President Trump isn't Adolf Hitler. Whatever you think about President Trump, he has never done anything that dimly compares with what Hitler did.

President Trump isn't Hitler. But except for the usual suspects on the Fox News Channel, who's been saying he is?  

Without wasting any more time, let's explain our own concern at this point:  

On the major shows of the Fox News Channel, we hear it said all the time. Members of "the lunatic left"—members of "the Democrat [sic] Party"—keep saying that Trump is Hitler!

It's said all the time on Fox! Brief bits of videotape will often be shown—bits of tape in which no one is actually saying the thing which has the Fox News personnel so upset. 

In our own view, liberal pundits and Democratic office holders often say things about President Trump which we think are unhelpful, unwise. But at this point, who is saying that Trump = Hitler? When's the last time you saw someone say that? 

When's the last time you saw someone say that? For ourselves, we can't think of an actual time.

We don't see people making that claim, but Bill returned to this point several more times. He seemed to be saying that people like Allen are triggered by these comparisons. 

But who is supposed to be making these claims? Who's saying that Trump equals Hitler?

Stephens and Tett offered standard thoughts about how inappropriate political violence is within a democracy. But who has been saying that Trump = Hitler? 

Neither Bill, nor either panelist, ever named an actual name. Bill never played videotape of one of "the liberals" making this comparison—a comparison which invokes one of history's most evil names.

Bill kept citing this comparison. But he never said who's been saying this—until eventually, continuing from above, a remarkable claim emerged, as you can see right here:

MAHER: Once you start with Hitler, it's like any time you do—

We've seen it in many places in the world where they make someone into, whether it's Rwanda or, you know, the Hutus saying the Tutsi were vermin. Or the Hutu... Somebody was vermin, I remember.

STEPHENS: The Tutsi were vermin.

MAHER: Whatever it was. Whenever you dehumanize someone to that degree, people are going to go, "Oh, I’m doing the—I’m a hero."

This guy wasn’t crazy crazy. Like, he wasn't hearing—you know, the dog wasn’t talking to him, and the moon. He just was, like, watching the—

TETT: Social media.

MAHER: Yeah, and media media.

TETT: And media media, yeah.

Really? Cole Allen was triggered by regular media comparing Trump to Hitler? That's what Maher and Tett now almost seemed to say.

Social media is one thing. Thanks to the "democratization of media," you can now hear every kind of crazy statement if you take yourself there.

But Bill and Tett now seemed to agree. When it comes to Trump = Hitler, it's regular media too! 

For today, we'll skip past the unfortunate way Bill pretended to be a medical specialist with respect to the would-be assassin. "He wasn't crazy crazy," Bill unwisely said. 

We'll skip that for now! But are regular media calling Trump Hitler? That's what Bill now seemed to say, and Tett was quick to agree.

Our youthful analysts came to us. As they did, their eyes glistened with tears.  

What have they done with the real Bill Maher, the innocent youngsters now asked. They muttered about "epistemic capture," and they muttered, perhaps unwisely, about the power of Fox.  

For ourselves, we were saddened by what we had seen. 

We humans, we thoughtfully said to ourselves. Do we ever miss a chance to miss the main point at a critical juncture like this? 

Tomorrow: Stephens tries to restore a bit of balance