Michael Moore: Donald Trump Never Wanted to Be President

Michael Moore claims that Donald Trump never wanted to president and launched his campaign as a negotiating tactic to help him score a better TV deal. Art by Flickr user DonkeyHotey

Michael Moore has claimed that Donald Trump never wanted to be president, but began his campaign as a way to gain leverage while negotiating a new deal with NBC. While the director did not name his sources, he wrote in The Huffington Post, “there are certain people reading this right now, they know who they are, and they know that every word in the following paragraphs actually happened.”

According to Moore, Trump was unhappy with the money he was making as host and star of The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice, and believed a presidential bid ”” and all the attention it would garner ”” would prove to NBC that he was worth millions more than what he was being paid. However, Trump’s plan immediately backfired when he launched his campaign with an infamous press conference where he called Mexicans “rapists” and “drug dealers,” and pledged to build a border wall. NBC immediately fired him.

Trump nevertheless stuck with his plan as a way to increase his value in the eyes of other television networks. Both the candidate and those in his circle believed he wouldn’t win many primaries, let alone the nomination or the presidency.

But as Trump’s polls surged, his campaign became a media sensation and he actually started winning, Trump supposedly put aside his search for a better TV deal and relished the near-universal attention. Moore, however, pointed to Trump’s uncharacteristically restrained speech after winning the New Jersey primary and clinching the Republican nomination as the moment the ruse finally caught up with him.

“No energy, no happiness, just the realization that now he was going to have to go through with this stunt that he started. It was no longer going to be performance art. He was going to have to go to work.”

While Moore wrote that Trump’s increasingly detrimental gaffes over the past several weeks ”” fighting with Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, suggesting second amendment supporters stop Hillary Clinton ”” could be considered karma, the director theorized it might actually be self-sabotage.

“Many now are sensing the end game here because they know Trump seriously doesn’t want to do the actual job ”” and, most importantly, he cannot and WILL NOT suffer through being officially and legally declared a loser ”” LOSER! ”” on the night of November 8th.”

Moore closed his piece with a personal message to Trump urging him to bow out soon so that the Republicans could nominate Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney, lose the presidency and perhaps with it the House of Representatives, the Senate and Supreme Court. “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Moore added. “You’re only the logical conclusion to a party that has lived off the currency of racism and bigotry and fellating the one percent for decades, and now their Trump has come home to roost.”