Former Secretary of State John Kerry is facing criticism after a Friday appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” when he jokingly compared President Donald Trump to an insecure teenage girl, The Washington Post reported.

Kerry had gone on the program to promote his new memoir, “Every Day is Extra,” when the conversation veered off into the president’s tweet the day before, in which he denounced Kerry’s recent meeting with the Iranian government as “illegal.”

When asked by Maher to elaborate on the president’s comments, Kerry shrugged it off.

“He’s the first president that I know of who spends more time reading his Twitter ‘likes’ than his briefing books or the Constitution of the United States,” Kerry said.

Kerry went on: “He really is the rare combination of an 8-year-old boy – I mean, he’s got the maturity of an 8-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl. It’s just who he is.”

According to the Post, the audience cheered the exchange, but not everyone on social media was amused. Over the weekend a chorus of dissenters denounced the former secretary of state’s “insecure teenage girl” joke.

“@JohnKerry I have tons of respect for you,” wrote one Twitter user. “Please do not insult young women with such a condescending and inaccurate generalization, never mind the offensive comparison to Trump. Teenage girls are our future. #dobetter”

“I’m disappointed John Kerry said Trump has the insecurity of a teenage girl. Trump is insecure, yes. But teenage girls, if they are insecure, has a culture of toxic masculinity to blame,” Tweeted author Martha Brockenbrough.

Matthew Segal, an ACLU attorney retweeted Stern's comment and wrote: "Trumpism is a reason to let teenagers vote, not to insult them."