NEW YORK (PNN) - July 28, 2025 - Left wing comedian Bill Maher admitted on Monday that he was dead wrong about the effect of President Donald J. Trump's tariffs - saying in an episode of his Club Random podcast that while many economists predicted that Trump's tariffs would immediately lead to inflation, he was among the doomsayers who were wrong.
"I remember I, along with probably most people, were saying at the beginning, ‘Oh, you know, by the 4th of July’ - somebody had a thing - how the economy was going to be tanked by then," said Maher during a discussion with Brian Tyler Cohen. " I was kind of like, ‘Well, that seems right to me.’ But that didn’t happen. Now, it could happen tomorrow. I am just saying that is reality."
"[T]he truth is, I don’t know what his strategy is. But look, the stock market is at record highs. I know not everybody lives by the stock market, but I also drive around," he added. "I don’t see a country in a Depression at all. I see people out there just living their lives. I would have thought - and I gotta own it - that these tariffs were going to sink this economy by this time - and they didn’t."
As the Daily Caller notes further; along with the strong stock market performance that Maher mentioned, manufacturing output also increased 0.1% in June after an upwardly revised 0.3% increase in May, the Federal Reserve Board reported on July 16. Moreover, U.S. jobless claims for the week ending July 19 sank by 4,000, marking a sixth consecutive week of decline and a three-month low.
U.S. retail sales growth also rebounded more than anticipated in June, climbing 0.6%, according to advance estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau released July 17.
Furthermore, President Trump has announced major trade deals during his second term, including with the European Union, Japan and the Philippines.