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Michael Moore at an anti-Trump rally in New York on 12 November 2016.
Michael Moore at an anti-Trump rally in New York on 12 November 2016. Photograph: Albin Lohr-Jone/Pacific/Barcroft
Michael Moore at an anti-Trump rally in New York on 12 November 2016. Photograph: Albin Lohr-Jone/Pacific/Barcroft

Michael Moore: Oprah Winfrey or Tom Hanks for US president in 2020

This article is more than 7 years old

In the wake of Donald Trump’s success, the film-maker says the Democratic party should choose ‘beloved’ celebrities as presidential candidates

Michael Moore, the documentary maker who released a damning film about the president-elect, Donald Trump, a month ago, has said he believes the Democratic party’s future success rests on them embracing populism.

Moore, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union show, said the leadership vacuum that will result from the departures of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would best be filled by a well-liked celebrity.

“Democrats would be better off if they ran Oprah [Winfrey] or Tom Hanks,” said Moore. “Why don’t we run beloved people? We have so many of them. The Republicans do this – they run [Ronald] Reagan and the Terminator [Arnold Schwarzenegger] and other people.”

Moore continued: “Why don’t we run somebody that the American people love and are really drawn to, and that are smart and have good politics and all that?”

Neither Hanks nor Winfrey has expressed an intention to enter politics, although the latter did express hope over the weekend that Trump had been humbled by his encounter with Obama at the White House.

Celebrities who have registered an interest in running for political office include Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Roseanne Barr and Dwayne Johnson.

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