Bill Maher has been in the spotlight and the line of fire ever since he published his post on his Real Time with Bill Maher Blog crediting Stan Lee and comic books as the reason Donald Trump rose to power. Just before one in the morning EST today (November 18), Maher shifted his focus from Lee to Trump in his latest tweet.
“Great to see the president here in Cali. I’m kidding, it made me spit up. Glad the fire is 55% contained. Unfortunately, he’s only 10% contained,” Maher penned, claiming the very thought of the president visiting California was enough to make him “spit up.”
The 62-year-old political commentator’s tweet was referencing Trump visiting the state of California following the recent deadly spread of wildfires. While Maher did pay tribute to the hard work of the firefighters containing the wildfires, he couldn’t help but including very familiar commentary on President Trump.
In a little over 12 hours, Bill’s tweet accumulated over 3,100 retweets, 21,000 likes, and 1,000 comments. While there were a few Trump supporters who were quick to clap back at Maher for his latest commentary, it wasn’t the president that the overwhelming majority of those leaving comments wanted to chat about.
In fact, it was irate Stan Lee fans who were not done lashing out at Maher for his blog post regarding the comic book visionary’s death.
“Bill, rethink your Stan Lee position. It’s wrong on many levels,” one individual commented .
Bill Maher believes Stan Lee’s comic books got Donald Trump elected ? https://t.co/0KzyDquGY3 pic.twitter.com/UbeBVTjKqR
— Complex (@Complex) November 17, 2018
One user pointed out that the characters Stan Lee created likely inspired a few people to pursue a career as a firefighter.
“Yep. God bless those firefighters… and the man who wrote stories inspiring them to become heroes. #StanLee,” the Twitter user penned .
There were, however, some Trump and comic book fans who claimed they weren’t offended and didn’t feel targeted by Maher’s blog post because it – like most of what the comedian posts and says – came off as nothing more than satire.
Bill Maher faces fan backlash when the comedian appears to blame Stan Lee for Donald Trump https://t.co/0l4wIkVsjb https://t.co/HxWFe6l0KF pic.twitter.com/AhbSMhqN0Y
— Breaking News (@FreebieNinja1) November 18, 2018
“I’m a huge comic book fan myself, not exactly into Marvel universe anymore, but other stuff. Anyway, I did’t [sic] feel targeted because it was satire,” one Twitter user explained .
With 11 million followers on Twitter, it doesn’t come as too much of a shock that some agreed with Maher’s commentary on Trump.
“Haven’t the people of California suffered enough?” one Twitter user joked in agreement with Maher.
Bill Maher reviewed his “dictator checklist” when it came to Donald Trump. https://t.co/4OeKAuMe7N
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 10, 2018
Known for being a very outspoken individual, having individuals lash out at him on social media isn’t uncommon territory for Bill Maher.