TV Article Michael Moore: Donald Trump never actually wanted to be President By Gerrad Hall Gerrad Hall Gerrad Hall is an executive editor at Entertainment Weekly, overseeing TV, music, and awards coverage. He is also host of the daily What to Watch podcast and weekly video series, as well as The Awardist podcast. Gerrad also cohosts EW's live Oscars, Emmys, SAG, and Grammys red carpet shows, and he has appeared on Good Morning America, The Talk, Access Hollywood, Extra!, and other talk shows, delivering the latest news on pop culture and entertainment. EW's editorial guidelines Published on August 16, 2016 12:00PM EDT Photo: Barry King/Getty Images In an essay posted to his website Tuesday, outspoken filmmaker Michael Moore says Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump never intended to be in the running for the White House. The Oscar winner theorizes the campaign was all part of Trump’s plan to prove his worth to NBC because the Apprentice host “wanted more money” as part of his deal with the network. “Donald Trump never actually wanted to be President of the United States. I know this for a fact. I’m not going to say how I know it,” writes the Where to Invade Next and Fahrenheit 9/11 director. “But there are certain people reading this right now, they know who they are, and they know that every word in the following paragraphs actually happened.” Moore, who has previously expressed that he thinks Trump will win the November election, says Trump talked to other networks about moving The Apprentice — talks that eventually got back to NBC. Moore says that’s when Trump decided to hold a few campaign rallies to demonstrate his popularity in early polls to get a bigger offer from NBC. “He rode down his golden escalator and opened his mouth … and with no prepared script, he went off the rails at his kick-off press conference, calling Mexicans ‘rapists’ and ‘drug dealers’ and pledging to build a wall to keep them all out,” Moore writes. “Jaws in the room were agape. His comments were so offensive, NBC, far from offering him a bigger paycheck, immediately fired him.” Moore contends Trump was “stunned” but soon “fell in love with himself all over again” because he found himself the star of “EVERY TV SHOW — and, soon, winning nearly every primary!” Moore also theorizes Trump’s “meltdown of the past three weeks was no accident,” but rather a “new strategy to get the hell out of a race he never intended to see through to its end anyway.” “The 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,” Moore writes. Representatives for Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. Read Moore’s full essay here.