Political comedian and late-night talk show host Bill Maher blasted President Donald Trump’s handling of Iran’s continued attacks on the Strait of Hormuz, as the Trump administration says the Iranian military has been largely decimated.
In particular, Maher accused the White House of being unprepared for an Iranian military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran is one of the greatest oil producers in the world. A lot of oil comes through Iran. And it all goes through this bottleneck, called the Strait of Hormuz. And the administration seems to be caught off guard that if you attack a country, they might use their best asset for leverage,” Maher said. “This is all in the sequel to ‘The Art of War’ called the ‘No Sh*t of Sherlock.’”
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The host continued slamming the Trump administration over the Persian Gulf blockade.
“Trump says, no Air Force. Iran has no Air force, no missiles, and no Navy. He says, ‘There’s nothing left to bomb,’” Maher said. “Yeah, we have nothing left to bomb. Apparently, they have something left to bomb, which is the Strait of Hormuz.
The president called the Iranian military “totally defeated” on Friday night, with War Secretary Pete Hegseth similarly saying that Iran “doesn’t have a functioning air force” and deeming that “their entire navy is at the bottom of the Persian Gulf” on Friday. With the U.S. declaring the Iranian regime’s fighting power completely decimated, Maher questioned how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is attacking ships in 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,” Maher said.
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Maher’s guest, former CEO of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein, chimed in, saying it’s not hard for a depleted Iran to control the strait because of the waterway’s narrowness.
“It doesn’t take much to fire cheap drones and menace ships so that they don’t go through,” Blankfein said.
Maher has supported U.S. intervention in Iran following the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters.
“If Trump somehow gets Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran all to be not these horrible places they were, he should get a Nobel Peace Prize,” Maher said in late January.
Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important oil shipping waterways in the world, has largely been choked off by the IRGC since early March after the first U.S.-Israeli joint strikes on Iran.
On Friday, Trump announced the U.S. military conducted a bombing raid on Iran’s oil lifeline of Kharg Island, saying the raids “totally obliterated every MILITARY target” on the island.
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“Our Weapons are the most powerful and sophisticated that the World has ever known but, for reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump told reporters on Friday that he expects the U.S. Navy to begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “very soon.”
