Howard Stern has said some shocking things in his time, but perhaps nothing quite so shocking as this: The radio host recently claimed that Donald Trump secretly wants Hillary Clinton to be president. Seriously. On Wednesday, the former America’s Got Talent judge argued that Trump ran in the election not because he wanted to be the leader of the free world but because he wanted “a couple more bucks out of NBC” in his contract for The Apprentice. “That is why Donald is calling for voter fraud investigations. He’s pissed he won. He still wants Hillary Clinton to win,” Stern added (jokingly?). “He’s so f***ing pissed, he’s hoping that he can find some voter fraud and hand it over to Hillary.”
While the idea that someone accidentally won the presidency when all he wanted was a fatter reality TV contract might sound like the script for a movie, Stern and Trump have been friendly for decades, which means the shock jock might have a more in-depth understanding of what motivates the new commander in chief than the rest of us. (ICYMI, Trump appeared on Stern’s show many times.) So, according to Stern, what is Trump’s main goal? It’s pretty simple: Trump “wants to be liked; he wants to be loved,” Stern said. “He wants people to cheer for him.”
The 63-year-old star added that he was “amazed” when Trump first announced his candidacy back in 2015, because he remembered the billionaire businessman as being a staunch Clinton supporter. While the topic of discussion during Trump’s visits to Stern’s show had more to do with panties than politics, Stern did say that Trump had been “pro-abortion.” Of Trump’s campaign, Stern added, “The new Donald Trump kind of surprised me.” It’s safe to say he wasn’t alone on that one.
Another area where Stern noted some serious flip-flopping? Trump’s take on Hollywood. “He’s now on this anti-Hollywood kick. He loves Hollywood! First of all, he loves the press. He lives for it! He loves people in Hollywood. He only wants to hobnob with them,” Stern argued.
In fact, he thinks the situation Trump is in now (namely, that he’s the president of the United States) might be bad for his health. “I don’t think it’s going to be a healthy experience,” Stern said. “All of this hatred and stuff directed toward him, it’s not good for him. It’s not good. There’s a reason every president who leaves the office has gray hair.” Stern then added that he worried that being president might actually “be detrimental to [Trump’s] mental health.”
Meanwhile, the new POTUS was busy meeting with Harley-Davidson executives and swearing in Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Stern added that he had already told Trump, point blank, that he wished the real estate tycoon had never run at all… Now it seems the only question is whether that makes two of them.