Michael Moore Thinks Gwen Stefani Is the Reason Donald Trump Ran for President

In fact, the Oscar-winning filmmaker asserted the pop star is the most responsible for unleashing President Trump. Here are the dots he's connecting: NBC was paying Stefani more to join "The Voice" than Trump was getting as the star of "The Apprentice," so Trump staged his Trump Tower campaign announcement to prove to the network that he was worth more.

"He'd been talking about running for president since 1988, but he didn't really want to be president," Moore told THR. "There's no penthouse in the White House. And he doesn't want to live in a black city. He was trying to pit NBC against another network, but it just went off the rails."

Stefani and NBC did yet respond to TooFab's request for comment on this theory.

Moore isn't the first person to float the idea that Trump didn't actually want to become president. It was one of many explosive allegations in Michael Wolff's popular book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."

According to Wolff, who interviewed key officials from Trump's administration and even sat in on meetings in the White House, the plan all along was to lose, but build a bigger audience in the process, because Trump wanted to launch his own television network. And we all know what happened next.

"Trump is our Frankenstein and we are Dr. Frankenstein," Moore told THR. "We have helped to create a situation that has allowed us to end up with Trump. The dumbing down of our society through the media, the lack of education through poor schools, allows for a dumbed-down electorate, and for him to be able to actually get 63 million votes."

His latest film, "Fahrenheit 11/9" -- a play on the title of his most successful movie yet, "Fahrenheit 9/11," and the day Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton was sealed -- takes a deep dive into understanding how America ended up with Trump as president, but Moore hopes viewers will walk away with more than just a few new Trump facts.

"If people think this is Michael Moore's Trump film and that they're going to get two hours of Trump, Trump, Trump, I'm sorry but I'm not going to give you a simplistic film like that," Moore said in the interview. "Yes, I will show you some stuff about Trump that you haven't seen, but if you're coming to see the pee tape, you're going to the wrong movie."

One of the concerns on the film's radar is 21st century fascism, as it examines how the media in 1930s Germany normalized Adolf Hitler, allowing him to rise to power. Moore told THR it's not meant as a direct comparison between Trump and the man who ordered the holocaust, but meant more as "a serious point about fascism."

"It comes from a book, 'Friendly Fascism,' by a philosopher named Bertram Gross. He talks about how the fascism of the 21st century would not be like the fascism of the 20th century," Moore explained. "It would not come with concentration camps and swastikas, but with a TV show and a smiley face. The fascists of the 21st century will convince the people to go against their own interests by using television and branding. I don't think we should be afraid to call this out for what it is."

On the subject of getting President Trump out of office, Moore thinks celebrity candidates may the answer for Democrats.

"We need beloved figures running. Say what you want about Trump, but tens of millions watched his show," Moore said. "We need Tom Hanks, Oprah, Michelle Obama. Who would not vote for Michelle Obama?"