Bill Maher said he supported President Donald Trump going to war against Iran, but that his administration mistimed when to launch the first strikes and have since “f*cked up a lot.”

The Real Time host shared his take on the state of the Iran war during an interview on Billy Bush’s Hot Mics podcast on Wednesday.

“There’s still a possibility that the regime will be overthrown. My personal feeling is they missed their window,” Maher said. “They should have started the war when the people were in the streets, because that was the time to do it.”

He continued, “They waited until the regime killed all those people in the streets, waited a couple of months, and then all of those people who would be there to lead the revolution — they’re all gone now.”

Maher was referring to the protests against Iran’s theocratic regime in late 2025 and earlier this year. Some organizations have estimated around 30,000 protesters were murdered by Iran’s government, while Trump has claimed 42,000 people were butchered.

The comic told Bush that there’s a chance Israel could be “planning something big” and “surprise” everyone with a blow that knocks out Iran’s remaining leadership. But he said he believes the war should just be wrapped up, one way or another.

“I thought it was a good idea to try. I thought they f*cked up a lot of actually doing it, and now let’s not make a bad situation worse,” Maher said. “Let’s get out of this as cleanly as we can, and we’ll try again at some point, if we have to.”

Trump last weekend said a deal to end the war was coming together and would be announced “shortly.” That was followed by reports that a deal could take a week or more to finalize.

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