"Just tell him 'I'm leaving you and I'm taking our child,'" said HBO's Bill Maher on Friday during his show Real Time. He was addressing First Lady Melania Trump, in the Maher half-joking-but-also-not-joking style he employs each week.

Maher was arguing to the audience and, for the gimmick, directly to the First Lady, that no one else has been able to stop Trump but she can. He went through a list of those who have tried and failed, including GOP primary candidates, Hillary Clinton, "never Trumpers", and Robert Mueller.

"Is there anyone left who can check Donald Trump?" he asked, rhetorically of course. "Yes, Melania."

He said that it's not "anti-feminist:" to say that women have the power of "the ultimatum" over men.

It took a half minute before he got the audience on board. At first they were unsure if it was okay to applaud an appeal to divorce, but eventually they got into the

"Getting men to change their destructive ways by threatening to leave them, humiliate them, or cut them off in bed," he said. "It's a tale as old as time."

"President Hellboy has proved to be impervious to facts, reason, shame, and the law, but maybe if you left him for another man, especially if that man was Mexican, maybe he would implode on his own," he said, to big reaction from the crowd. "You can end this reign of terror, and all you have to do is channel your inner Taylor Swift and walk out the door."

He said her unhappiness is obvious, and showed clips and photos that implied she has a distaste for her husband.

"Just tell him, I'm leaving you, and I'm taking our child. He would be stunned," said Maher. Characterizing Trump's reaction as "We have a child?'"



New Rule: The Great Wife Hope | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) www.youtube.com

That wasn't all though, the then suggested that if she's afraid to do it on her own, she should get a divorce "buddy." His suggestion was Jerry Hall, wife of Rupert Murdoch.

"You two have a lot in common," Maher said. "Your husbands are ruining the world.'

"The axis of evil in the world now is Trump and Fox News, he added. "We have a government propaganda channel now. It's impossible to even tell who's wearing the head in this horse costume."

"Cavemen like Trump and Murdoch can't handle one thing: an ego-lashing," said Maher. "He would fall apart if she ever said 'Donald, there's nothing keeping me here, I can't love what you've become and I found where you hid my passport.'"

"Imagine how nuts he would go?" he said as he wrapped up the monologue.

There were a lot of small jokes and some big ones, but mostly it was mean-spirited burn scoring. Trust the Resistance to run with it as a serious idea.

After all, the idea of withholding the feminine touch is, as Maher said, not a new idea. In fact, it's not even new this week.