Comedian and pundit Bill Maher called President Donald Trump “an a**hole but he’s our a**hole” as he called for the president to “cut and run” from the war Maher supported starting.

On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the interview guest was Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, bioethicist, oncologist, and New York Times bestselling author of the book “Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life.”

The panel guests were Douglas Murray, New York Post contributor and bestselling author of the book “On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization”; and Paul Rieckhoff, national security and political analyst, founder of Independent Veterans of America (IVA), and host of the podcast “Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff.”

During the panel segment, Maher opened by reassessing the Iran war, saying that he hopes Trump will “abandon” the effort because he took aa shot at ending the regime and “it didn’t work”:

BILL MAHER: Now, you and I, I think, were on the same page when this started six weeks ago. I mean, we thought it was the right thing to do to take this shot now to deal with Iran once and for all, not just because of the nukes, but they did say in their own negotiations that they were weeks away from having 11 bombs.

To me, that was pretty clear. Not to mention what they do to their own people, and we just don’t think jihadists and people who believe in martyrdom can have nukes.

Okay, so I thought it was worth taking the shot. Six weeks later, I think we’re at a different place because I read your column today.

You think we gotta finish this no matter what it takes. I was never on that page.

I was on the page, this is a great opportunity. Hey, we see them all in one place. We can wipe out the whole leadership at once. It looks like they’re ready for an uprising.

Take the shot, Mav. Take the shot.

We did it, and it didn’t work. Now what, do we cut and run or do we stay the course?

I hope Donald Trump is the abandoner he’s always been. I hope he is the guy who has never not abandoned anything in his life except his love for tariffs. And I hope that he does what America always done.

These people who say, you know, we’ll get a reputation for cutting, we always cut and run. We did it in Vietnam, we did it Iraq, we did into the Kurds, we do it in Afghanistan, we did in Beirut, that’s us. No lifeguard on duty! If you get in with us, we are going to f*ck you, okay?

And that’s Donald Trump. He’s an a**hole, but he’s our a**hole.

Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!