A con at the White House

No, it's not a new film.

Bill Maher met Trump at the White House, which he’ll live to regret because he seemed to have been so embarrassingly conned.

Maher, I’m sure, went with good intentions… so good that he left his critical thinking at home. His expectations of Trump were so low that anything other than a drooling maniac would have been impressive to him.

Trump is a conman, so he’s able to adopt personalities that aren’t his usual, like being agreeable, charming, and totally unvindictive. This puts the Maher mark at ease. The complete setup included wooing him, framing it as irresistibly controversial, stroking his ego, and making the whole thing about him. This seems to be a winning strategy with his type of personality.

The con indeed occurred to him that very night when he watched the real Trump on TV. Much like the end of a heist-film reveal, previous events were regurgitated in his mind, revealing details of the grift he’d not noticed live.

The cognitive dissonance lead Maher — much like someone recommending a car salesman that shafted them just not to admit it — to the narrative we see in the video above, which all but explicitly reveals the extent of his gullibility. (Ironically, the purpose of the con was to evoke cognitive dissonance in those who see Trump for what he really is!)

Let’s look at what Maher says about the evening, paraphrased:

• I’m just a comedian, unequipped to expose conmen like Trump and his elaborate schemes.

• I was very impressed that he had not attempted the impossible, recruiting me to the cult of MAGA, and that he didn’t force me to take a picture of me looking like a shill buffoon. Of course I did take his MAGA gifts.

• Trump laughs like all other human beings, and, as a comedian, my only real skill is detecting fake laughs. And now that I’ve established ironclad credibility in exposing fakery, believe everything I’m about to say.

• I’m eternally thankful that he didn’t literally kill me, or growl, after making mildly funny quips; he even chuckled. So impressed.

• Oopsy, I forgot what he replied to what’s curious to many people; maybe I can’t reconcile that with the narrative?

• Bob — Kid Rock to you — did not at all set up the con mood for the dinner the night before.

• Don — Donald Trump to you — actually paid attention to me and didn’t lick his balls even once during the entire night!

I like Bill Maher as an entertainer; I agree with some of what he says and disagree with others, which is exactly where he wants to be, I think. But after this, I can not see him as anything but a chump.