Donald Trump Will Win The Presidency, Michael Moore Says
CLEVELAND (CBS Detroit) In the midst of a Republican National Convention that brought scandals related to plagiarism, norovirus, even a candidate on the stage refusing to endorse nominee Donald Trump, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore saw something many others with his viewpoint didn't.
He saw a president in the making.
"We've been sitting in our bubble having a laugh at this ... sh** show, but the truth is this plays to a lot of people that he has to win to become the next president. I have to say, I'm sorry to be the buzzkill this early on, but I think Trump is going to win, I'm sorry ..." he said.
Michigan native Moore made that bold pronouncement on the Bill Maher show on HBO Wednesday.
Maher, a noted liberal, urged Moore to keep saying it every day, responding "the enemy is complacency."
Moore referenced his home state when describing why he thought Trump could win. He also likened it to the Brexit vote that rocked Europe, where a mass of older, mostly white people voted to opt out of the European Union, preferring to return to their own traditional ethnic and economic enclaves.
In addition to his celebrity, professed business and leadership savvy, Trump's platform heavily relies on the wall he says he'll build to keep Mexicans out of America, and proposals to deport people from the Middle East back to their country of origin.
"I live in Michigan. Let me tell you: it's going to be the Brexit strategy," Moore said, comparing England to rust belt states including Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. "Mitt Romney lost by 64 electoral votes," Moore said. "The total electoral votes of those four states in the Rust Belt: 64."
Moore, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker who calls Traverse City his home base, has been very critical of Republicans in general and Trump in particular. He has called Trump a facist.
This prediction is a turnaround for Moore, who said late last year during a public Q&A session that Trump would not be the next president because "81 percent of the electorate is women, people of color, and young people under the age of 35," who as a group would not vote for Trump.
"It's that 19 percent of angry white guys over the age of 35 (who support him)... I can tell you ... at least 30 percent of us are good, we're good for Hillary, we're good for Bernie," he said.
But he obviously changed his tune since Trump's surge in popularity. Recent polls have suggested Trump is within a couple of polling points or in a dead heat with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.