With his new show, “The Terms of My Surrender,” Michael Moore is taking his fight against Donald Trump to the Broadway stage. After he announced the production, he spoke with Variety about his 100 performances of resistance, how he predicts Trump’s impeachment will happen, and the Democrats’ best prospects in 2020.
Who should run in 2020?
It’s way too early to say. But if you want my general philosophical thought about this: One things the Democrats didn’t understands is that Trump is a beloved TV star. I’ve had this question now for almost 20 years — Why don’t the Democrats run Tom Hanks? Why doesn’t Oprah run? Why don’t we run someone that’s beloved by the American people? Democrats always shy away from Hollywood, and I always say to them, “Really? Because out where I live, people love Hollywood! They love the movies. They love stars.” The Republicans run Reagan, they run Schwarzenegger. Gopher from “The Love Boat” was elected to Congress in Iowa. They run Sonny Bono. Why don’t the Democrats run somebody that people love?
People have talked about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Run the Rock! Run the Rock. Who do you want for commander in chief? I want the f—ing Rock! It would scare anybody that would hurt us. Think about how safe we would be if the Rock was president. Not Vin Diesel! The Rock. Or Liam Neeson, but Liam Neeson can’t run because our Constitution says you have to be born here. So who’s the American Liam Neeson that we could run? Because nobody would f— with him.
You’ve predicted Trump will be impeached. How will it happen?
It can’t happen now, because the Republicans control the Senate. But the Republicans are going to lose a lot of seats next year in the House. Hopefully they’ll lose the House. That will send them into conniptions, and they are not going to be so loyal to Trump in the second half of his first term. But it depends on whether we can remove three Republicans from the Senate next year. We have to keep all the Democratic seats, and gain three more. Then we have the majority of the Senate. That may take ’til 2020 to do that. I was sort of joking last week when I said Trump will be impeached halfway through his second term, but unless we get busy and start running people who can win elections, that’s how long it’s gonna be.
When Trump was inaugurated, you kicked off 100 days of resistance. Now your 12-week Broadway run is almost another 100 days of resistance — 97 performances, with the Actors’ Fund show.
I’ve got 12 weeks. I’m giving Trump less. I want his engagement to be even more limited.
