You can debate whether this is the right take or not. Still, one thing was clear: Bill Maher regretted pitching this question to Newsweek’s Batya Ungar-Sargon, a self-avowed ‘MAGA leftist,’ which was a label Maher mocked until she went line-by-line on how Trump won her over, and she doesn’t regret supporting him at all.
The HBO host tried to sell the ‘the sky is falling’ bit as a segue to bait Ms. Ungar-Sargon into having one of those moments where liberals can get the admission from someone with whom they disagree and then bask in the afterglow of condescension and self-righteousness that oozes like pus from leftists.
Ungar-Sargon was clear and summarized her support in less than five minutes. To Maher’s credit, he didn’t interrupt her; Ungar-Sargon’s mic would’ve been cut off if this were CNN or MSNBC. Some points conservatives might not like, but it speaks to Trump’s broad appeal, shattering the myth that only old white guys and Nazis support him.
She said that Trump has neutralized the social conservative wing of the Republican Party, hammered the free trade/globalist tendencies that led to five million good manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas, and has bulldozed the ‘bomb everywhere-spread democracy’ neoconservative interventionist tendencies that dominated the rank-and-file for years. Trump is anti-war, socially moderate, and “anti-free/trade protectionist.” Trump dug into what kept the working class pinned down, spoke to their concerns, and won. When those jobs got shipped overseas, both parties allowed hordes of illegal aliens to compete for the ones that remained here.
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Batya Ungar Sargon's defiant retort to Bill Maher's question asking if she regrets supporting Trump:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) March 15, 2025
Maher: "I'm just wondering what you think now: You must have a feeling in your gut:
This is going badly, I shouldn't have thrown in my lot with this team."
BUS: "I feel the… pic.twitter.com/kKoaanvkyi
.@bungarsargon did a fabulous job https://t.co/XzgLVWwMKv
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 15, 2025
Ungar-Sargon argued that Trump’s core is a leftist agenda, which led to Maher running away from this one. Ungar-Sargon is an admitted liberal, but one who isn’t insane. She admits that many of her points might come off as conservative, but she’s not. The woman is, frankly, what Bill Maher might become if the ‘woke’ mob keeps pushing Democrats into irrelevancy.
I wouldn’t say Trump is protectionist, as he’s OK with trade deals, but they must be fair. He's also not afraid of foreign competition or investment. Anti-war isn’t a leftist agenda; most of the country, I think, is exhausted of war. Also, given how government grows exponentially under wartime conditions, it’s a constitutional duty for any liberty-minded president to keep us out of them. On abortion, Trump has adopted the consensus position: abortion is legal but with restrictions. I wouldn’t necessarily call these leftist agenda items, but it comports with what Ms. Ungar-Sargon finds politically palatable, and that’s what makes America great. It also sheds light into how a lot of Democrats voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2024, as there are millions of Obama-Trump/Biden-Trump folks out there.
America is a diverse group. Our election system rewards candidates with such qualities who can reach various voter groups. The GOP is now a multi-racial working class party.
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