>> People have no clue, so many of them, about what life is like in other parts of the world, for one, or what life used to be like in this country, or really how easy they have it.

Now, I'm not discounting the struggles, lots of people have economic struggles, but statistics do matter.

Hello and welcome to GZERO World.

I'm Ian Bremmer.

And for some people, the older you get, the more you hate your birthdays.

As Uncle Sam gets ready to celebrate the semi-quincentennial of the United States, does he like what he sees when he looks in the mirror?

It's a question that most Americans are asking themselves.

A recent poll from Pew Research showed that a majority of Americans, almost 60%, think that our country's best days are behind us.

It's easy to see why.

Cost of living has surged, America's role in the world is uncertain, and President Trump is testing our system of checks and balances in every way he can.

But when you look at the progress that America has made over the last 50 or 100 or 200 years, shouldn't we be celebrating some of our successes?

Joining me to discuss is national curmudgeon and host of HBO's show Real Time, Bill Maher.

We talk about how he thinks Americans should be celebrating this July 4th, Democrats reclaiming patriotism, and even that UFC fight that took place on the White House lawn.

Don't worry, I've also got your puppet regime.

George Washington.

Why is everybody so interested in George Washington?

The guy just put his name on everything.

But first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.

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And A war in the Middle East, rising gas prices, a deeply unpopular president, Americans convinced the country is heading in the wrong direction.

I am, of course, talking about 1976.

That's the last time the U.S.

celebrated a major birthday.

It's bicentennial.

And America was coming out of one of the most turbulent decades in its history.

Vietnam had ended just a year earlier.

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace over Watergate.

Trust in government had basically collapsed and the economy was struggling through inflation and an energy crisis.

Sounds familiar, right?

It's easy to think that the divisions we see today are unprecedented.

And judging by the national mood, you might think we're planning a funeral rather than the 250th birthday party this upcoming July 4th.

Even the birthday celebration itself has become a flashpoint.

Last year, there was the military parade to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S.

Army that many said looked more like something you'd see in Red Square than in Washington.

And the great American State Fair, a 16-day patriotic party taking place on the National Mall this summer, has seen concert performers drop out left and right because of the criticism they faced for even being associated with the event.

And there are even two competing organizations trying to plan the whole thing.

There's America 250, the official bipartisan congressional commission, and then there's Freedom 250, which was created by Trump himself with public and private funding.

Yes, the America of 2026 has plenty of problems, but compared to our last big celebration, is the country actually worse off?

50 years ago, life expectancy in these United States was around 72.

It's 79 today.

The economy was almost three times smaller when adjusting for inflation.

The internet didn't exist, but same-sex marriage also wasn't legal anywhere and wouldn't be for another 28 years.

You could smoke a full pack of cigarettes on an airplane if you wanted to, and no one would judge you.

The United States enters its 250th birthday deeply polarized.

Trust in government remains near historic lows, and confidence in Congress, the media, other institutions too, continues to decline.

Americans disagree not only about policy, but increasingly about basic facts.

But it's also true that the country reaching this milestone is wealthier, it's healthier, it's safer, and even more inclusive than half a century ago.

And as the United States celebrates its 250th birthday, we don't know what the country will look like when it celebrates its 300th.

Maybe historians will look back on this period as the beginning of a long decline.

Maybe.

Or maybe they could see another familiar chapter in American history.

If you spend more time thinking about what the United States is getting right and wrong, and telling the country about it, then my guest today, Bill Maher, here's our conversation.

Bill Maher, thanks for joining the show.

- Sure.

- It's the 250th anniversary of our country.

How should we be celebrating it?

Well, we should be.

I mean, a lot of people are boycotting it.

It's something I've addressed on my show, because they associate it with Trump, and you can't do anything that has Trump's scent on it.

So it's not my point of view.

He doesn't own the country.

Doesn't own the flag.

Doesn't own the flag, doesn't own patriotism.

And so I think you're cutting off your nose to spite your face, if that's the tack you're taking.

You know, I said a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, all the people who pulled out of the event, the music performers, it wasn't like an A-list roster anyway.

Why?

You know, it's one thing not to perform, say, at the UFC fight that he had at the White House lawn.

That's a Trump event, I get it.

It's a totally MAGA thing.

This is not.

You know, this is America.

America's MAGA and people who are not MAGA.

It's everybody, and it should be seen that way.

Yeah, MAGA's, you know, 30, 35% of the country.

These are Americans.

These are Americans.

And we should-- part of the problem, I feel, is that I don't think schools do a very good job anymore teaching kids about the history of this country.

Some places, they only accent the bad.

I don't think they have a very good perspective on this country.

They see it as colonizers and irredeemably racist.

And certainly all of our sins are right there to be seen, and they are real, and they are to be hated.

But you know, we're not a hell of a lot different than a lot of other countries in the bad things we did, and we're a hell of a lot better than a lot of other places in the good things we did.

And it should be a balance.

But unfortunately, you don't find that.

I go back to Kamala Harris is not my favorite candidate, but I did love her beginning of her acceptance speech at the convention.

It was all about take back patriotism, this America, we love this country, we love Americans, because Democrats are always kind of getting this pressure for good reason.

You need to convince the independent voter that you like this country.

Yeah, you give Democrats, you've said that Democrats are inadequately patriotic.

They certainly come off that way.

And on the far left, they are.

They only see the bad.

And it's ironic, because, you know, Western values, which they seem to be against, I notice when they talk about Israel, they talk about an outpost of the Western world, like that's a bad thing.

I think that's a good thing.

And I think the values that came through Athens and Rome and London and Philadelphia are generally good values.

Now, along the way, did it take us too long to get there?

Of course.

Everything in history takes too long.

And we did not live up to the ideals, of course, at first, and we're still a work in progress.

But those ideals, the ideals of the enlightenment, those are ideals that, ironically, if you're a minority or somebody who has gotten the bad end of the stick historically, they're there to protect you.

You know, they're there to raise you up.

It's we who talk about human rights and about equal rights and civil rights and equal rights for women and homosexuals and racial civil rights.

I mean, these things took too long, but they can't.

But you know, this is America.

I mean, a lot of countries haven't even addressed them.

We had Glenn Greenwald on the show, I remember, early on.

- Glenn Greenwald.

You remember that name.

Oh, I know.

Sure, yeah, yeah.

He's still around.

- He's still around.

And, you know, it was interesting because he was just going off on all of this litany of horrible things about the United States.

And I said, look, I know that there are all of these things, but what would you say is admirable about the U.S.?

I think that one of the things the U.S.

does the best that I hope and that I use as an example all the time is its dedication to free speech and a free press, for that matter, and just the Constitution in general, the idea that checks and balances are critically important.

I mean, here in Brazil all the time, one of the projects that I try and do, actually, is import American ideas about how freedom of speech should be talked about, the idea that Jewish lawyers at the ACLU defended the right of neo-Nazis to march through Skokie.

This is something really foreign to most other countries, including countries that do other things really well that I think the US is a leading model for.

The question took him by surprise, but he ended up, I thought, in a much, it was a very good conversation.

Be truthful.

- Be truthful.

Just be truthful.

- Just be truthful.

And admit that a lot of the things that America birthed into this world are things you wouldn't want to live without.

Rule of law is better than theocracy.

It's not just different.

It's better.

Respect for minorities is better.

Scientific inquiry is better.

I mean, the reason why there's a Geneva Convention, why there is even the idea of war crimes, trial by jury, you know, all these things are imperfect because humans are imperfect.

But, you know, balance of power, of three branches of government, that was a genius idea that you create three different branches of government that keep each other in check.

Now, we have gotten that way out of balance now because one of the branches is not doing its job.

Congress.

- Yes.

But at least the idea is there, and maybe we can-- And one's doing a little more of its job than perhaps the founders originally intended.

- You're talking about the Supreme Court?

- No, I'm talking about the president.

Oh, of course.

Yes.

But that's been going on a long, long time.

That's right.

The executive presidency, the imperial presidency, we've seen-- That has been-- right.

Yeah.

So if you're talking to these entertainers, and you know so many of them-- I'm not asking you to give names-- and you say, hey, it would be better for our country for people like you to actually be out there and celebrate, what do they say?

I don't know.

I mean, some of them wouldn't even talk to me.

Really?

- That's a problem.

Yeah.

That's a big problem on the left.

Because they see that you're too willing to go to the White House and actually talk to the president.

- Exactly.

Things like that.

I mean, as I always say to my woke friends, we voted for the same person.

You're just why she lost.

You know?

It's like, if I'm not good enough-- and by the way, even if I was a Trumper, which plainly I'm not, and I could show you all his tweets since I've been to the White House.

They're not complimentary.

I think that should be proof that I was not seduced.

But even if I was, you should talk to me.

But they would never.

I mean, and it is a big problem in this country that anything, I mean, we just had elections here in California.

I don't think in November it's, we are going to have a Republican on the ballot for governor.

I'm just learning about this guy, Steve Hilton.

He's a new guy.

I mean, are there things I'm not going to like?

There are.

But there's lots of things all of us don't like about what's going on in California now and how dysfunctional.

And this is what happens when you have one-party government.

Of either side, it's just not good.

But I think something that is not recognized enough is that because Trump is so toxic to so many people, and I certainly understand why, that they don't even consider anyone with an R by their name.

So what's the right way?

When you think about 2028, how should the Democrats position themselves to be better than they have been?

Well, Andrew Sullivan had a great line a couple of weeks ago.

He said, "Woke is not dead.

It's just waiting."

You know, I mean, he was quoting all these ideas and things that have been said by the candidate in Texas, Talarico, who is touted as somebody who could turn that state, which has not been a Democratic winner there for how long?

I don't know, but a long, long, maybe Lloyd Bentsen.

And Trump is helping him out with Paxton as the nominee.

- Yes, and they have an absolute Attila the Hun running for the Republicans.

But then I read some of the comments that Andrew was quoting, and it's like, oh, God, you people just never learn.

I mean, just-- it's just crazy.

It's just so, like, pointlessly, obviously, anti-common sense.

And people are just not going to go for that.

And that is still a demon that the Democrats have not driven a stake into the heart of.

And they need somebody who has the guts to come along.

I mean, I see Rahm Emanuel is trying to do it, but I don't see him actually getting the nomination.

You have to-the problem is the primaries.

You have to get through this steeplechase of the primary where the most radical people in your party do the best and then somehow get back in the general election to renouncing everything you said.

Remember Mitt Romney?

I'm shaking the etch-a-sketch.

Well, easier said than done.

And you know, the last guy who was able to thread that needle was Obama.

But Obama was a real centrist.

You know, he was a true centrist.

Now, not everybody saw him that way, but he was.

That's the kind of Democrat I like, and that's the kind I would hope would step forward again.

So I know that you're optimistic about the country.

So am I. But are you optimistic about the political system?

Optimistic is a strong word.

I don't know if I ever-- I said I love the country.

I'm not optimistic-- - Well, you look at so much of the good of the country still.

You still talk about it.

- Well, people have no clue, so many of them, about what life is like in other parts of the world, for one, or what life used to be like in this country, or really how easy they have it in many ways.

Now, I'm not discounting the struggles lots of people have, economic struggles, but statistics do matter, and also changes in quality of life matter.

I mean, if you go back 100 years, we're talking about a hot shower being a luxury of life.

If you just go back to when you and I were still alive, you know, lots of stuff is more expensive.

It's true.

College and food and, you know, we've got to do something.

But lots of stuff is cheaper.

And life itself, the quality of life, I was reading, I was shocked to see that actually the millennials who complain a lot about the economy, I understand why, but Gen X, which is the one before them, actually had it way worse.

And they don't complain.

That's not a complaining generation.

- No, it's a fairly quiet generation.

That's a quiet generation.

- Absolutely.

- That's the middle child.

Me, by the way.

- Is that what you were?

I'm a first child, but I am actually, I'm barely Gen X. Gen X, yeah.

I don't want to be a boomer.

It just feels older, you know.

Well, it is.

- I know, exactly.

So how do you think about the checks and balances?

You know, at the beginning of this second Trump term, you were a little more concerned about the country descending into authoritarianism than I think you are today.

I was saying this on our show tonight, because I live in the present, because I see things that happen, and then I change my views according to what's going on now.

I was saying that there was a slow-moving coup before he was elected the first time, and also, as you recall, that he would never concede when everyone said, "You smoke too much pot."

But that was the case.

He still hasn't conceded in 2020.

Absolutely.

He still hasn't conceded.

He still talks about it in a regular election.

And that's a terrible thing.

I've also seen him stopped in many ways.

That doesn't mean I'm not still alarmed by what he very often tries to do.

But I have seen Congress, The New York Times had a big story, I don't know, six months ago or something, talking about the budget changes he tried to make within each department.

Almost none of them came about.

They're almost the exact same budget going to each, including ones he tried to get rid of altogether.

- Look, I mean, DOGE, the biggest thing he started off with, lasted for how many months and how much was done?

- Yeah.

I mean, DOGE was horrible.

And so was what ICE was doing.

Had to get out of Minnesota.

Yeah, yeah.

But- Is this his incompetence?

It has been, but he- What I'm saying is- Are these real checks and balances?

What do you think it is?

These are real checks and balances.

Congress really did that.

Congress just-- and it's quiet.

Like, you don't hear a lot about it.

I wouldn't have known that unless I read it in the paper.

Like, oh my gosh, really?

All these departments, which they printed, like, what he wanted to cut and then what the current allotment was.

And it was what it used to be.

Sometimes it went up.

And then there's the Supreme Court, which, as you mentioned on the show tonight, they checked him on tariffs.

Liberation Day.

- And lots of courts around the country have checked him on all sorts of immigration issues.

So he can't exactly do everything he wants to do.

And I saw him do this interview with-- I guess it was the Norah O'Donnell interview where he said, you're a terrible person.

He is LOL.

You've got to give him that.

And she brought up the king's thing.

And he said, "If I was a king, I wouldn't be talking to you."

You have people doing no kings, I'm not a king.

What I am, if I was a king, I wouldn't be dealing with you.

Now, that doesn't explain the whole situation.

There are things about him that, I mean, he just acts like he wants to be a king.

He doesn't want to deal with anybody except other leaders.

He acts like it's the 18th-- - Well, if he were a king, he'd be spending as much time on the media, at least as he spends right now, because he can't help himself with that.

Yeah.

He acts like it's the 18th century, and it's just him and other leaders, and they do it and the Congress is kind of a nuisance.

And the Congress, of course, rolls over to whatever he wants to do pretty much anyway, but not totally, and not the courts, and not even his own party recently.

They, as we were saying, they revolted on the slush fund.

They revolted on Bill Pulte.

And we saw this after the 2020 election also.

There were people, including his own attorney general, like Bill Barr, like Mitch McConnell, like Mike Pence, who was on our show a couple of weeks ago.

There were ones who-- not that many, and of course, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger.

But you know, McConnell, Pence, Liz Cheney, these are serious people.

Bill Barr, who said no.

And those senators you're seeing now.

They said, "You did not win that election.

You should stop the nonsense.

We're not going along with this.

We went along with almost everything you wanted to do.

This is our moment to say no."

So it does still exist to a degree.

Am I worried?

Yes.

But, you know, he's going to be a lame duck president.

I don't think he's actually even going to try to run again, although he constantly will say, "There's ways you could do it."

He said that to me a lot that night.

I said, "No, there not.

There's no ways you could do it.

Yes, there is.

No, there's not."

There's ways you can overturn the last election.

No, there aren't, as it turns out.

And we'll see.

So July 4th, 250.

I remember the 200th, the tall ships.

I was a little kid, but I was very excited about it.

What do you want to see, Americans?

Just have fun.

It's a party.

It's 250.

And try to put some balance in this situation.

You know, I get it that there are probably schools in this country that maybe underplay how bad slavery was.

I don't know.

I didn't go to school in Alabama.

I went to school in New Jersey.

And even in New Jersey, I mean, even in 1968, New Jersey, we were absolutely taught slavery was horrible.

They didn't whitewash it, but I'm sure it's different in southern states.

Is it that different in 2026?

Maybe I don't know.

I don't know what's going on in Texas.

But fine.

I always say there's a grand bargain in the offing for everything.

Teach the truth about slavery.

Also teach the truth about communism, because lots of colleges soft-pedal that.

And that was a pretty horrible thing that killed a lot of people, too.

So, just be real.

Just teach reality.

We have a lot of blemishes in our past, and we have a lot to be proud of.

And live in the moment.

Live in the present.

Like Obama used to always say, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."

Bill Maher, thanks for joining us.

My pleasure.

And now to Puppet Regime, where our puppet-in-chief gets a little history lesson.

The history of our country has been badly distorted by some very stupid and unhappy people.

So we're going to be going around to make some changes.

This is the Old Stone House, part of the Battle of Brooklyn, which of course they lost because they were radical left lunatics.

What kind of an idiot would live in an old stone house?

We're gonna remake it as a new gold house.

And we're gonna take money away from healthcare to do it.

Frances.

Is that even like a man's name or a woman's name?

These days you can't even tell.

Washington.

God.

You know, people are always complaining about what we're doing, but nobody knows the history.

You ask 'em, they don't know anything.

Name the 13 colonies, can you name it?

- The 13 colonies?

- Yeah.

- We got New York.

- All right.

- Virginia.

- All right.

- Pennsylvania.

- Right.

- Florida.

- I like it.

I like it!

He said Florida!

Finally, somebody included Florida.

Can you tell me what the 13 original colonies were?

- You see Delaware.

- Delaware, God.

Hate the guys from Delaware.

Freaking George Washington crossed the Delaware to get away from the Bidens.

- Washington.

- Washington.

- George Washington.

- George Washington.

Why is everybody so interested in George Washington?

The guy just put his name on everything.

What an ego on this guy.

It's unbelievable.

George Washington Bridge.

Frankly, it looks like crap.

They even gave this guy a fort, too.

We need a fort.

Pete, we need a fort.

Finally, a place named for somebody who actually did something.

[MUSIC PLAYING] That's our show this week.

Come back next week.

And if you like what you've seen, or even if you don't, but you want to celebrate the 250th by watching Joey Chestnut eat 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes at Coney Island, why don't you check us out at gzeromedia.com.

[music] Funding for GZERO World is provided by our lead sponsor, Prologis.

Every day, all over the world, Prologis helps businesses of all sizes lower their carbon footprint and scale their supply chains.

With a portfolio of logistics and real estate and an end-to-end solutions platform addressing the critical initiatives of global logistics today.

Learn more at Prologis.com.

And by Cox Enterprises is proud to support GZERO.

Cox is investing in the future, working to create an impact in advanced recycling and in emerging technology companies that will help shape tomorrow.

Cox, a family of businesses.

Additional funding provided by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, Koo and Patricia Yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities, and... ♪♪♪♪♪ [acoustic guitar chords]