Trump expected to keep the perfect record of GOP presidents who triggered recession

Satirist Bill Maher is hoping we can get rid of Donald J. Trump when the president's economic policies trigger a recession -- in a Republican tradition that dates to the early 1900s.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, who left office in 1909, every Republican president has seen a recession take hold in his first term, MarketWatch.com reported in May.

Now, satirist Bill Maher is hoping Donald J. Trump's massive, trillion-dollar tax cut for the wealthy, trade wars and other economic policies will trigger another recession and doom his presidency. 

"A recession is a survivable event; what Trump is doing to this country is not," the satirist said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

"We survive one every time a Republican is in the White House, it's true," Maher said on Friday night. "Every Republican president since Teddy Roosevelt has presided over a recession."

"Four Republican presidents had two of them and Eisenhower had three," he said, adding:

"The United States has survived 47 recessions in all and since the Great Depression, we've never gone more than 10 years without one. Another recession is coming. Not because I'm rooting for it, because someone [Donald Trump] passed a giant tax giveaway to the rich that added trillions to the debt and started a trade war for no reason, and deliberately sabotaged the Affordable Care Act, and rolled back the rules for banks so they can once again gamble with our money. Those are actual policies for men with real power as opposed to me who just made a wish. I just made a wish! What am I, a genie?"

'I don't really care'

Maher also addressed the mixed message first lady Melania Trump sent when, on an unannounced humanitarian visit to a children's shelter in Texas, she wore a jacket with these words scrawled on the back:

"I REALLY DON'T CARE. DO U?"

Maher said she has other clothing in her wardrobe with messages that are just as provocative, including:

"That's Mrs. Hitler to You."

"I VOTED FOR HILLARY."