
Dr. Phil McGraw called the President Trump-led national redistricting war “Bulls—” during an interview with Comedian Bill Maher.
McGraw, during a Friday interview on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” debated with Maher around the fact that redistricting is done by both Democrats and Republicans, as well as between censuses.
“Texas is doing it because they say because they’ve got more Republican voters now, they should have more representation,” McGraw said in the interview highlighted by Mediaite. “Is that bulls—? Yeah, sort of.”
This comes amid a brewing battle over redistricting as Trump calls for the Commerce Department to conduct a new census ahead of the next scheduled one in 2030.
Earlier this month, Texas Democrats fled the state to prevent a quorum to vote on a new gerrymandering map that would give Republicans five new seats in Congress come the 2026 midterms.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (R) called for the lawmakers to be arrested for abandoning their post. The goal is to bring them back and force a vote in the Texas House. Since the Democratic legislators are not in Texas, however, Trump has touted the idea of enlisting the FBI to arrest them, which has sparked fury among Democrats.
Trump, seeking to maintain a Republican majority in Congress, also asked the Commerce Department to do a new census ahead of the one planned for 2030. In normal times, the census is done every ten years, and redistricting is done after this data is collected.
These extreme measures have now sprouted a tit-for-tat redistricting war.