Michael Moore says he still isn't sure Donald Trump will become president

Michael Moore questions if Donald Trump will be president, still

(Image credit: Late Night)

Michael Moore predicted in August that Donald Trump would be elected president by winning Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Seth Meyers reminded him on Wednesday's Late Night. "I never wanted to be more wrong," Moore said. "Ever since then people have been asking me for help with their lotto numbers." Meyers asked if Moore thought the Democrats had learned the right lessons from Hillary Clinton's defeat, and Moore said "the Democrats' biggest problem — and this includes people who voted for Hillary — they don't act like they won." Clinton's huge victory in the popular vote strips Trump of any mandate, he said, and he volunteered to lead the charge to kill the Electoral College.

Moore said he would want to abolish America's "arcane" election system even if Trump had won the popular vote and lost the White House, but he added that the founding fathers did include some escape hatches in the Electoral College system. One of Alexander Hamilton's "genius ideas" was that "maybe there should be a stopgap, just in case a madman or somebody who thought he was going to be king gets elected, there's that one final door he's got to go through," Moore said. "So right now, if you don't mind — I made that prediction back in the summer — so I'd like to make another one tonight."

He didn't exactly predict that Trump won't ever take office, but he came close. Trump "is not president of the United States yet," Moore noted. "He's not president until noon on Jan. 20 of 2017," or more than six weeks from now. "Would you not agree, regardless [of] what side of the political fence you're on, this has been the craziest election year?" he asked. "Nothing anyone has predicted has happened — the opposite has happened — so is it possible, just possible, that in these next six weeks, something else might happen, something crazy, something we're not expecting?" Watch below. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.