Bill Maher has an unexpected awakening on air, admitting he fell for a media headline designed to push fear about Trump and Pete Hegseth.

Maher’s face was priceless: the look of a man realizing he swallowed the bait.

MAHER: “Pete Hegseth is summoning hundreds of generals and admirals to Washington. I heard 800 of them from around the world are being summoned to Washington. No one knows why.”

MICHAEL SMERCONISH: “I don’t know why people are so unsettled about this. Truly. If it were a corporate CEO saying, I want to have the leadership come together for a skull session, nobody would care. I read those stories very carefully. Like, what the hell am I missing here? I don’t get it — the concern.”

MAHER: “I love that. That’s sensible because I read it and, yes, I think I got scared because they wanted me to be scared.”