Bill Maher delivered a scathing review of President Donald Trump's Rose Garden speech Friday, branding the appearance "crackers."
The host of HBO's "Real Time" show gave the president both barrels following his announcement of a national emergency over the southern border. Earlier in the day, the president announced his decision in the White House's Rose Garden to assembled officials, supporters and journalists.
True to form, Trump spoke on a wide range of topics during his appearance, attacking the progressive media and his Democrat opponents who have criticized his demand for billions of dollars in funding for the his border wall—one of the president's most contentious campaign promises.
Veering from topic to topic, Trump boasted of the supposed domestic and foreign successes of his administration and failed to answer questions from journalists about some of the apparently spurious facts and figures he cited.
"Try to remain calm, there's a national emergency, haven't you heard?" Maher asked his audience. "He did it, f*cko did it today," Maher said, referring to Trump. "The president declared a national emergency."
Riffing on Trump's rambling, chaotic speaking style and number of misleading and factually incorrect statements, Maher called his delivery "just completely crackers." He added, "I know I've said that before, but this was just one long, baseless, incoherent, stream of consciousness, call the nursing home rant."
"We don't even notice anymore when he gets stupider, it's like farting on a garbage ship," he joked. "You know who should've declared a national emergency long ago? Fact checkers."
"A national emergency should not be used by Trump—it should be used on Trump," he suggested.
Trump's national emergency declaration will allow to access as much as $8 billion in funds from other parts of the government, including the Department of Defense and disaster relief agencies. He announced the emergency on the same day he agreed to a new funding deal to another government shutdown.
Trump and the Democrats have been at loggerheads since December over funding for his proposed wall. The president was demanding $5.7 billion for his project, but Democratic leaders had refused to budge. The compromise funding bill agreed this week was touted as a victory for the Democrats, as it only gave Trump $1.375 billion for frontier security.
But despite protests from all sides of the political spectrum, Trump circumvented Congress to find cash to build up to 234 miles of his long-promised barrier.
His declaration is sure to be challenged in the courts, and the decision could well end up in front of the Supreme Court. Trump alluded to this in a bizarre sing-song style in Friday's speech, but seemed confident his plan would eventually be successful.
