Michael Moore is back for Trump, and he does redeem himself by the picture’s end.
I have found Moore less credible than he used to be in the 90s, but he still manages to bring forth important facts censored out of the mainstream corporate media. Moore’s talent is in taking large, complex issues and framing them as battles, skirmishes with uncertain outcomes.
While showing how Trump actually rallied support across battleground states–in fascist-styled rallies–as Hillary ignored them, Moore nevertheless pushes a couple of dangerous conspiracy theories. At times claiming “It was Russia,” and then “It was Comey,” he fails to follow up on this Democratic Party orthodoxy with any evidence at all. It was never Hillary’s fault, a toxic candidate who had just stolen the primary, and who was a lifelong warmonger and war criminal–if American officials were permitted to be prosecuted as such. They are not.
Moore’s investigation of the Flint water poisoning is much more thorough and infuriating. The governor should be imprisoned for life with all of his enablers. The deliberate, murderous assault on black communities is a shocking, racist attack on American citizens, what might be considered actual Treason, waging chemical warfare on US civilians. The Constitution doesn’t specify a particular motive for Treason, only that a war is perpetrated.
The Clinton theft of the primary from Bernie Sanders then gets some minimal investigation, which actually clashes with the previous segments on Hillary. It is indisputable that the primaries of 2016 were rigged, and yet the cheater is rewarded and presumed a legitimate candidate in other parts of the film. She was not.
A resurgence of union activity, with teachers strikes, boosts the spirits. Moore suggests that there is an uprising of union and social-democratic leaders. He even calls out Pelosi & Schumer for their impeding progress, in his view, but no detailed investigation of their crimes. Pelosi is famous for her collusion as Speaker of the House in thwarting impeachment, first in favor of W. Bush and now Trump.
But Moore does come on strong at the finish with his comparison of Trump with the fascists he models his presidency on. Trump’s open fascism is a threat to us all, and Moore makes a good, and unnerving case. It even seems that Moore evolves in assessing how we’ve gotten here, with the September 11th attacks being the Reichstag Fire moment, a moment Moore never did expose in his previous film, Fahrenheit 9/11. He dropped the ball on what really happened, the Treason of that day.
The dice have already been rolled and America hurtles directly toward fascist dictatorship, as no one has fought back against it with sufficient force and clarity. With the September 11th attack myth in place, the government is empowered to seize more and more liberties. Trump knows this and he seizes every opportunity he can.
My verdict is that everyone should get this film ASAP and use it as a starting point for assessing the many issues it dredges up.
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J. Giambrone 
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