Filmmaker Michael Moore is claiming that he knows the real reason that Donald Trump's campaign has lately gone haywire—he never wanted to win in the first place.
In a new essay on his website, Moore says that he knows "for a fact" that Trump only ran for President in order to drive up the price of his hit TV show The Apprentice.
Simply put, he wanted more money. He had floated the idea before of possibly running for president in the hopes that the attention from that would make his negotiating position stronger... Of course he wouldn’t really have to RUN for President — just make the announcement, hold a few mega-rallies that would be packed with tens of thousands of fans, and wait for the first opinion polls to come in showing him — what else! — in first place! And then he would get whatever deal he wanted, worth millions more than what he was currently being paid.
But something unexpected happened along the way, Moore claims. Trump's controversial comments about Mexicans ("They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people”) at his very first campaign event got him kicked off of NBC, rather than landing him a bigger paycheck.
Moore claims that despite that setback, Trump continued running so that he would increase his potential value for other TV networks. But then he started winning, and got carried away. All the fun ended once Trump won the New Jersey primary, and it became apparent that he might actually become the nominee—he had no interest in the hard work of actually being the President. Trump's speech that night was unusually subdued.
Instead of it being one of his loud, brash speeches, it was downright depressing. 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.
According to Moore's theory, Donald Trump's current stream of gaffes is intentional. It's a way for him to lose without being a loser.
[T]he only explanation for the unusual ramping up, day after day, of one disgustingly reckless statement after another is that he’s doing it consciously (or subconsciously) so that he’ll have to bow out or blame “others” for forcing him out. 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.
While Moore doesn't cite any sources for his theory, he claims "there are certain people reading this right now, they know who they are, and they know that every word...actually happened."
