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05th Sep 2018

WATCH: Michael Moore describes how Donald Trump “played” him the first time they met

Carl Kinsella

Michael Moore Donald Trump

“He is one of the great performance artists of our time.”

Some think he’s senile, some think he’s a genius, others think he’s nothing more than a moron — but everyone has an opinion on Donald Trump.

Documentarian Michael Moore, who is promoting his upcoming Trump documentary Fahrenheit 11/9, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to share some of his thoughts on the American president, including an insightful story about the first time the pair met.

Moore described an unexpected meeting with Trump in 1998 where the two only realised they’d both be guests on Roseanne Barr’s talk show after they’d arrived at the studio.

Moore told a story about how Trump was refusing to do the show with Moore as he was worried that Moore might say something to embarrass him.

“I wanted to help save her show that day so I went over to him and I said ‘They told me that you’re worried, I just want you to know, you don’t have to worry, it’s an afternoon show, we’re gonna keep it light, Roseanne’s a comedian. Nothing’s gonna happen, I promise you. We’re gonna have a good time.”

“So he stayed, and we did the show and I did not bring up anything political or financial or anything that would have upset him. It wasn’t until I first saw him running for president many years later that I realised I’d been played.”

“I’d like to think that it’s pretty hard to pull one over on me. But he did. And I thought wow, this is how it’s worked his whole life.”

“He knows just how to create the environment, how to create the situation where I’m gonna feel bad because he feels bad and Roseanne’s not gonna have her show and so I’m gonna make this work. And he manipulated the whole situation. And I realised then that this guy is no dummy.”

“This guy is not stupid. He is truly one of the great performance artists of our time.”

You can watch the video in full below.

Moore also denied Trump’s claim that the two have eaten dinner together multiple times, saying he gave up KFC a long time ago.

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