“Real Time” host Bill Maher challenged one of President Trump’s central arguments as he wages a tariff war among several countries.
“I have one basic question: Why do we want to bring back manufacturing?” Maher asked his panel on Friday. “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 gonna take them? Robots,” Maher continued. “That’s who’s gonna take them anyway! He acts like progress itself is woke. And nobody spoke more against woke bulls— than me, but progress itself is not woke. We’ve moved into a different era.”
“Real Time” host Bill Maher asked why President Trump wants to bring back manufacturing since it’s “so 70s.” (Getty Images)
MSNBC contributor Sam Stein agreed, saying the “AI revolution is gonna completely upend all of this” and make manufacturing jobs “obsolete.” However, The Free Press columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon argued “people want to go back to the 70s” because of how strong the middle class was at the time.
“In the 70s, the largest share of our GDP was in the middle class. And that was not separate from the fact that 25% of our economy was in manufacturing,” Ungar-Sargon said. “Now, the top 20% controls over 50% of the GDP. Our economy was an upward funnel of wealth, and the largest share, which used to be in manufacturing, which gave a lot of working class people a middle class standard of living, now the largest share is in real estate and finance, meaning that asset-rich Americans are controlling over 50% of the GDP, and they have left the working class out of all of that prosperity that was generated.”
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The Free Press columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon argued President Trump’s tariff war will help revive the middle class with strong manufacturing jobs. (Screenshot/HBO)
“Manufacturing is still being done. It’s just being done in other countries,” she stressed.
“For wages we will not work for,” Maher interjected.
“That’s exactly right, Bill,” Ungar-Sargon responded. “That’s what the tariffs are for. They are to make American workers more competitive in the global market. Why are we accepting that there should be a race to the bottom? You know, China, what is its competitive advantage over us? It’s that it pays slave wages. Why should we accept that? They’re still manufacturing our PPE, our pharmaceuticals, our cars. They’re making all that stuff.”
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Maher argued “robots” are taking over the manufacturing jobs that Trump is aiming to bring back to the US, suggesting the president opposes “progress.” (Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
After echoing Trump’s argument that the outsourcing of key goods is a “national security” issue for the US, Ungar-Sargon told Maher it’s “really important that we have a stake in the manufacturing of the things that we need as a nation, so that when China decides that it wants to go to war against us, we’re not relying on them for steel and aluminum in order to fight them.”
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“Ok, at least that’s an answer,” Maher responded. “And you think that’s the way it’s gonna come out? We’re gonna go through this ‘transition period-‘”
“Who’s so upset right now? The stock market, right? It’s rich people,” Ungar-Sargon said.
“Well, lots of people,” Maher pushed back. “Even people who are not rich… People have their 401ks-“
“This is class warfare on behalf of the working class by our president,” Ungar-Sargon added.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
