Donald Trump's landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses has led many to believe the GOP primary is already sewn up, the former president cruising ahead of rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley in the early election contest.
The Associated Press called the race soon after the caucuses convened across the state, before some sites had even finished making speeches in support of each candidate. With virtually all votes counted, the former president was at 51 percent, 30 points ahead of Florida Governor DeSantis in second with about 21 percent and former South Carolina Governor Haley in third on just over 19 percent.
Trump's appeal has even appeared to convince left-wing documentary maker Michael Moore, who praised Trump in a widely viewed video clip shared on social media, calling him the "human Molotov cocktail" that voters wanted.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by MAGA account @Sadie_NC, on January 17, 2024, and viewed more than 719,000 times since, included a video in which Michael Moore spoke at length about Trump's appeal to voters.
During the clip, Moore said: "Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of the Ford Motor executives and said 'If you close these factories as you're planning to do in Detroit and build them in Mexico, I'm going to put a 35 percent tariff on those cars when you send it back and nobody's going to buy them,
"It was an amazing thing to see. No politician, Republican or Democrat, had ever said anything like that to these executives and it was music to the ears of people in Michigan, and Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin..."
Moore went on to say that Trump was "saying the things to people who are hurting" and that he is the "human Molotov cocktail that they've been waiting for, the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them."
Moore later added: "Trump's election is going to be the biggest 'f*** you' ever recorded in human history and it will feel good..."
The Facts
Moore indeed delivered a speech in which he praised the rhetoric of Trump, arguing he empowered "dispossessed" American voters, and calling Trump "the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives."
Moore also said his victory would be hated by "the elites," "the career politicians," and "the media...after they loved him," statements that echo some of Trump's campaigning.
Donald Trump posted a similar version of the clip on Truth Social in April 2023.
However, the context of the video has been taken grossly out of context.
First, it was filmed more than seven years ago. It is a truncated clip from the film Michael Moore in TrumpLand, a one-man show recorded in October 2016, in which he spoke about the presidential election and American political culture.
Filmed a few weeks before the 2016 election, it included but was not limited to discussions about Trump's campaign.
Moore's show was not a celebration of Trump. Among other stunts, Moore said to make potential Trump voters "comfortable," he directed ushers in the show's theater to seat Mexican audience members in a section where a physical wall was put around them, a reference to Trump's pledge to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Crucially, the clip shared on X also leaves out the rest of Moore's monologue in which he argues that Trump voters were being duped.
In the full clip, available via Moore's YouTube channel, Moore went on to argue that the "rightfully angry people" who voted for Trump would discover they had "used the ballot as an anger management tool, and now you're f*****."
"When the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it," Moore said.
"But I get it: you wanted to send a message, you had righteous anger, and justifiable anger. Well, message sent."
Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Moore via email for comment.
Moore has been unwaveringly critical of Trump elsewhere. In a 2018 interview with Newsweek, promoting his film Fahrenheit 11/9, Moore called him an "evil genius." During the film, Trump's words are superimposed over clips of Adolf Hitler rallies.
In September 2023, Moore was asked on CNN whether he agreed with Trump that autoworkers were getting "screwed over." Moore replied: "Only because we had to live through four years of Trump in the White House."
Moore went on to say that "the majority of the country" does not want Trump, pointing out how he lost the 2016 popular vote, his party's losses in the 2018 midterms, and his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
The Ruling
Misleading Material.
The video shared on X is a truncated clip from a 2016 Michael Moore film in which Moore goes on to say that those who would vote for Donald Trump would end up being duped. Moore has been widely critical of Trump elsewhere.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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