Bill Maher VISIBLY STUNNED as Trump war BACKFIRES

Something interesting happened during the most recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, which is that Maher, who has been relatively, not totally, but relatively supportive of Donald Trump's war on Iran, was visibly stunned when a former top Trump advisor, Anthony Scaramucci, had to lay out the strategic failure thus far of Trump's war on Iran, and we have to talk about it. But before we do, if you end up liking this video and you want to support the channel, please be sure to hit the like, subscribe, and alert bells before you go. I should also say that this comes at the same time that we're getting a report from the

conservative Wall Street Journal of all places that Trump defied his own advisors and said that the strategic failure would not occur and it concerns the Strait of Hormuz. So with that in mind, let's play the clip and then we'll dive into the Wall Street Journal's reporting.

So let's talk about, let's talk about the war for a minute. Okay.

Good segue.

Trump says no Air Force, Iran has no Air Force, no missiles and no Navy. He says there's nothing left to bomb. Yeah, we have nothing left to bomb. Apparently they have something left to bomb, which is the Strait of Hormuz. I don't understand this. We have complete military superiority. We're bragging about that. Except for the one place where we apparently need complete military superiority. Do you understand this why we can't control

the Strait of Hormuz the one place we need to control in our- So again Bill has not had Bill has had some criticisms Mars had some criticisms of Trump's war with Iran just because he doesn't trust that Trump is incredibly competent but otherwise he's pretty hawkish and this is one of my this is one of my complaints about Bill Maher is this is where he gets a bit too right-wing for me, in my opinion. But even he seems to be saying, like, well, wait a minute.

So we have superiority in all these other theaters but the place that it is the most important, Strait of Hormuz, which is a – it's like 21 miles wide at its narrowest point and it's surrounded on three sides by Iranian territory. So they have a bit of a stranglehold on it. It's also where a substantial portion of the world's global oil exports have to traverse through, right? So it's incredibly important.

It's the primary reason that gas prices are surging on Trump's watch is because Iran is you know basically cracking down on the Strait of Hormuz in response to Trump's war on them. So it is a massive strategic failure by Trump. Now, with that in mind, let's hear what Anthony Scaramucci and the other guests here at Bill Maher have to say.

Naren.

I don't think it takes much effort to create an obstacle on a very narrow bottleneck there. So I think they don't have to have much firepower. They're going to need – if they're going to accomplish something, it's going to be by bringing the regime down and getting some sort of compromise on that. It doesn't take much to fire cheap drones and menace ships so that they don't go through.

I should say that that is true, right? I mean, obviously the Iranian military is totally outclassed by either the US military or the Israeli military, let alone both of them together, but they are creating a lot of mischief in the Strait of Hormuz with mines and drones.

Like it really, it is truly asymmetric. You don't need a mighty air force or even a mighty navy or a mighty army to, you know, threaten and harass and potentially sink oil tankers as well to deter them from entering the Strait of Hormuz. So they, Iran, can apply a lot of global market and geopolitical pressure with a very relatively small amount of force, and that is their advantage.

But we took four of our minesweepers in September and we redeployed them to other parts of the force, and that is their advantage. So that's Anthony Scaramucci who was Trump's first communications director in his first term. He has since become an ever Trump Republican, he's donated and contributed and campaigned for Democrats as well. Again still relatively right-wing, not a guy I would want in a Democratic administration, but as far as ex-Trump advisors go, relatively sane and relatively critical of Donald Trump. And it is true that minesweepers, which

would help detect Iranian mines and thus allow ships, either those mines to be targeted and destroyed or allow ships to maneuver around them, they're no longer in the theater because Trump redirected them elsewhere. So again, pointing out the strategic failure

of the Trump administration.

Worry that the oil was headed to China. That's 90% of Iranian oil went to China.

You know, the way it's going to happen is that the Iranians will let the Chinese ships

go through that ships going through trying to go through which they have been, by the way, Iranian ships have been going through heading for China. So they they know where the mines are. The Iranian ships are getting through the Iranian tankers have been getting through. And we're letting them through? And we are letting them through because we don't want to escalate the situation with China. So

Bill Maher is stunned. He's stunned by this. He's like, wait a minute, so they're able to successfully block US ships or ships allied with the United States from entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran is – their own ships and Chinese-aligned ships are getting – yes, that is why with just – again, a relatively small amount of force in this particular bottleneck, Iran has been able to inflict such substantial economic pain on the United States and they're able to

do so without harming their own allies, right? So this comes as we're getting reports from the Wall Street Journal that Trump apparently was in denial about what Iran would do with the Strait of Hormuz. Whoops! Trump reportedly told aides Iran wouldn't block Strait of Hormuz if US attacked. Donald Trump reportedly told officials in his administration that Iran would cave in

the face of US military bombardment before blocking the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is doing instead of caving. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday night that Trump said it was unlikely that Iran would shut the strait, and even if it did, he said the US military could succeed in unblocking it. According to the Journal, General Dan Cain, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Trump that if the US attacked, Iran could respond by closing the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and about 20% of the world's crude

oil passes through Hormuz. Keynes said in several briefings that US officials had long believed Iran could deploy mines, drones, and missiles to close the world's most vital shipping lane, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Trump acknowledged the risk, these people said, but moved forward with the most consequential foreign policy decision of his two presidencies.

He told his team that Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait, and even if Iran tried, the U.S. military could handle it, end quote. Shortly before the story oil. Trump said that the U.S. did not hit oil facilities on the island, but added that if Iran continues firing at ships in the strait, he would quote, reconsider that decision. The bombings came as Trump said the U.S. Navy would begin escorting oil tankers through the strait quote, soon. On Friday,

about 2,500 U.S. Marines aboard multiple warships headed to the Middle East. More than 1,300 Iranians and 13 US service members since the war began with the United States and Israel strikes on Iran have died. Iran has responded by attacking Israel, US military installations in the region, and effectively closing the vital Strait of Hormuz, which has sent the price of oil and gasoline surging. It is. So this again is coming from the conservative Wall Street Journal, right? This is a sister or cousin publication of Fox News.

This is not a liberal rag. This isn't the New York Times. This isn't MS Now. This is from the conservative Wall Street Journal showing that Donald Trump just totally, totally whiffed this and made the wrong guess. He made the wrong judgment. Now he may still prevail in this war to be clear given how totally disadvantaged Iran is militarily. I'm not a prophet. I'm not predicting these things, but the experts told him, hey, listen, you need to understand if you do this, this is the likely response by Iran. Why wouldn't they do this? They know they can't go toe- toe with the United States military, so they're going to hit you where it hurts to try to inflict domestic, economic, and geopolitical pressure on

you. And Trump just said, eh, don't worry about it, I got this. And so far, he hasn't. Again, gas prices are surging to levels we have not seen in years and to levels in such a short amount of time that we have not seen in many, many years. And the American people were already soured on the Trump economy well before this. They are accurately blaming Trump for this. A recent poll said that 48% of the American people blame Donald Trump for the surge in gas prices. And the next thing that they are likely to blame was like 16%, 48%, so a decisive, overwhelming plurality. And then the second likeliest option

was like a third of that, right? And so just this is backfiring on Trump politically as the midterms rapidly approach. And if he doesn't wrap this up quickly, it's entirely possible that the surge and the scourge of high gas prices

will remain as the midterms approach. As a matter of fact, Trump's own Department of Energy recently said, and we did a video about this, that it looks like gas prices won't plummet to pre-Iran war levels until mid-2027 at the earliest, and that's coming from the Trump administration. So this has been a total political and economic shit show, and apparently Donald Trump was warned and he disregarded the expert advice, and even Bill Maher, who again, as far as

liberals are concerned, is one of the most amenable to supporting Trump in this war, even he is just stunned at how incompetently it's been waged. it's been waged. In the meantime, let me know what you think in the comments.