Donald Trump may be leading the race to become the Republican party’s presidential nominee, but Rachel Maddow and Jimmy Fallon aren’t so sure he actually wants the job.
“Do you think he wants to be president for real?” Fallon asked his guest, who hosts her own political talk show on MSNBC.
“I can’t imagine that he actually wants to be president,” Maddow said. “He’s supposedly running this giant business empire, but he’s taking a few months off to run for president in his spare time, while doing nothing on his business, and everything seems to be fine. I don’t think he usually has to work very hard, so I can’t imagine that being president seems like fun. Maybe he could be elected and then he could outsource it to somebody. China will do it for $3.”
Still, they both agreed his tactics, although controversial, are “kind of refreshing.” Maddow added that while “he says stuff that has never been said before,” but that doesn’t mean “the things he’s saying should have ever been said.”
His campaign seems to be a win for liberals, in Maddow’s mind. She said Trump’s threat to run independently would take away a lot of votes from the Republican candidates and guarantee a win for Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. If he doesn’t do that, she says, the Republicans “will owe him forever,” and if he does do that, Clinton becomes the President and “she owes him forever.”
“It’s actually genius. I don’t think he’s a dumb guy — he’s not playing a dumb game here,” Maddow said.
In July, Maddow had told Seth Meyers that Trump’s presidential campaign has been a “gift from God.”