Michael Moore: If Elected, Donald Trump Would Be 'Last President of the United States'

Democracy Now! speaks with Michael Moore about his new film, in which he suggests that the election of Donald Trump would herald the end of the United States.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Jonathan Feinstein

By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now!-November 7, 2016

With the presidential election just a day away, we continue our conversation with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, the director of "Roger & Me," "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Bowling for Columbine," "Sicko," "Capitalism: A Love Story" and "Where to Invade Next." He has just released a surprise new film titled "Michael Moore in TrumpLand." On Thursday afternoon, we spoke with Michael Moore about his new film, in which he suggests that the election of Donald Trump will herald the end of the United States.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: In late October, Donald Trump sent out a tweet that may have surprised many of his followers. In the tweet, he linked to a video of filmmaker Michael Moore along with the words "I agree, @MMFlint." That’s Michael Moore’s Twitter handle. Trump went on to say, "To all Americans, I see you & I hear you. I am your voice. Vote to #DrainTheSwamp w/ me on 11/8." Well, Trump’s tweet included a four-minute audio recording pulled from Michael Moore’s new film, Michael Moore in TrumpLand. The recording was edited to make it sound like Michael Moore was endorsing Trump. Well, in response, Moore tweeted, quote, "Look at this Orwellian tweet by Trump! Donald, u either haven’t seen my movie or u are conning your followers. The clip u show [u] doctored," unquote. Well, we end today’s show with the undoctored clip from Michael Moore’s film and get response to the controversy from Michael Moore himself. This is from Michael Moore in TrumpLand.

MICHAEL MOORE: Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of the Ford Motor executives and said, "If you close these factories, as you’re planning to do in Detroit, and build them in Mexico, I’m going to put a 35 percent tariff on those cars when you send them back, and nobody is going to buy them." It was an amazing thing to see. No politician, Republican or Democrat, had ever said anything like that to these executives. And it was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—the Brexit states. If you live here in Ohio, you know what I’m talking about. Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant, because he’s saying the things to people who are hurting. And it’s why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov cocktail that they’ve been waiting for, the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. And on November 8th, Election Day, although they’ve lost their jobs, although they’ve been foreclosed on by the bank—next came the divorce, and now the wife and kids are gone, the car has been repoed, they haven’t had a real vacation in years, they’re stuck with the [bleep] Obamacare Bronze Plan, where you can’t even get a [bleep] Percocet—they’ve essentially lost everything they had—except one thing, the one thing that doesn’t cost them a cent and is guaranteed to them by the American Constitution: the right to vote. They might be penniless, they might be homeless, they might be [bleep] over and [bleep] up. It doesn’t matter, because it’s equalized on that day. A millionaire has the same number of votes as the person without a job: one. And there’s more of the former middle class than there are in the millionaire class. So, on November 8th, the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain and take that lever, or felt pen or touchscreen, and put a big [bleep] X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J. Trump. They see that the elites who ruined their lives hate Trump. Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The media hates Trump—after they loved him and created him, and now hate him. Thank you, media. The enemy of my enemy is who I’m voting for on November 8th. Yes, on November 8th, you, Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, Billy Bob Blow—all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system, because it’s your right. Trump’s election is going to be the biggest "[bleep] you" ever recorded in human history. And it will feel good—for a day, yeah, maybe a week, possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, Michiganders and Wisconsinites of Middle England—right?—they all voted to leave, and now they regret it, and over 4 million of them have signed a petition to have a do-over. They want another election. It ain’t gonna happen, because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you’re [bleep]. And the rest of Europe? The rest of Europe? They’re like, "Bye, Felicia." So, when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn’t going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it. But I get it. You wanted to send a message. You had righteous anger and justifiable anger. Well, message sent. Good night, America. You’ve just elected the last president of the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: "You’ve just elected the last president of the United States." Michael Moore—

MICHAEL MOORE: Right. 

AMY GOODMAN: —in studio here in New York.

MICHAEL MOORE: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response to yourself?

MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, well, that’s what I think—you know, the United States that we know now, for better or worse, won’t be the United States that we know after four years of Donald Trump. So, we all—those of us who are upset at the things about this country that we’re upset about, the way to fix it isn’t to put Trump in there, you know, to blow it up. But, you know, that whole piece, it’s funny you played that. A couple of right-wing websites doctored that piece, and they cut me off right after "And when you vote for Trump, and it will feel good," and they cut it right there like I wanted to say like it’s going to feel good. And, of course, the next line is, as you just showed, you know, "for a day, maybe a week." And this went all over these right-wing websites last week. And iTunes like sent me a text saying, "What’s going on? Like, tens of thousands of people suddenly in the middle of the day are buying your film." And we were already doing well. I mean, it’s been at number one on iTunes for almost a couple weeks. I said, "The right-wingers are telling people to go buy this movie because they’ve been shown only this one little bit of it." And I was feeling kind of—I know I shouldn’t—just bear with me. It’s the Irish Catholic in me. I was feeling guilty that all these poor, conservative, right-wing dudes were losing five bucks to iTunes, and then they get my movie, and they realize, you know, "Oh, no!" and they can’t get their money back. So, I—actually, I called up Megyn Kelly and got her producer, and I said, "Can I come on Fox tonight? You know, I know I’m not a usual Fox guest, but can I come on? And I just want to tell people to stop buying my movie, because I just feel bad they’re losing five bucks, you know." And so, they had me on. And I told them that. I said, "People, I mean, I want you to watch my movie," I said. "I think you might learn a few things," because I had—in the movie, I have a number of gently disguised facts that will—you know, I hope might seep in a little bit. "But I just can’t take your money if you’re thinking that this is some love poem to Donald Trump, because it’s the opposite of that."

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it wasn’t only them, but him. It was Donald Trump—

MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —himself who tweeted out this video.

MICHAEL MOORE: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: He wrote what? Michael Moore, "To all Americans, I see you & I hear you. I am your voice. Vote to #DrainTheSwamp w/ me on 11/8." And he linked to a YouTube of the edited video.

MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, yes, which only then drove hundreds of thousands of more people to my movie, maybe millions at this point. And it’s like—I looked at this. I thought, "I cannot believe this." Right? So, does he think—OK, he clearly hasn’t seen the movie, right? So, does he think this is—honestly, Amy, this is what I think it is. I think he saw that his name was in the title of a movie, and he’s such a narcissist, that he just went, "Hey, there’s a movie about me. It’s got my name in it." You know? He doesn’t talk like that, by the way. That was like western Michigan accent.

 

Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of The Silenced Majority, a New York Times best-seller.