'Cult-like': How MAGA sycophants like Karoline Leavitt feed Trump's 'narcissism'

12 May

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with members of the media outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

When President Donald Trump sat alongside his Cabinet a day after he crossed the 100-day mark of his time in office last month, members of the cabinet took turns to praise the president.

Although everyone offered glowing reviews, Attorney General Pam Bondi stood out by telling Trump that he was genuinely the best president of all time.

"President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you," she said during the Cabinet meeting.

In a podcast for The New Republic discussing Trump's need for constant approval, journalists Greg Sargent and Amanda Marcotte described the "over-the-top" praise he receives from his aides as feeding into his "narcissism.""Every emotion is exaggerated to the maximum. They pretend to be angry at the loudest volume. They pretend to be sad with the biggest droopy faces and wailing tears. Everything’s loud and garish and schmaltzy," Marcotte said.

"Most of us would be embarrassed to have somebody praise us like that because we know it’s not true... But he just needs it to just be constantly coming into his ears. And it’s getting worse as he ages, for various reasons. Any psychologist will also tell you that when narcissists are feeling insulted or they’re feeling their insecurity rise up, often because their approval ratings are coming down or they’re otherwise failing, their need to be told they’re the greatest just continues to go up."

Sargent and Marcotte also analyzed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's description of the president, calling it "cultlike."

"She routinely fluffs Trump with astonishingly cultlike descriptions of him to reporters—ones that portray him as powerful, calm, and completely in command of events. But then, left to his own devices on Truth Social, Trump presents the opposite picture, erupting regularly in wild meltdowns and uncontrollable hissy fits over the tiniest of slights," Sargent said.

According to Marcotte,"the over-the-top nature of it does affect certain people by convincing them—I don’t think Trump’s voters, even his biggest fans, think he’s the greatest president ever; the person with the most integrity via all time; no person has ever been anything more thing than Donald Trump ever has."

She added that repeated claims such as, "He’s the greatest businessman of all time," unintentionally reinforce the notion that he was at least a successful businessman, which is actually false. "He was a failure. He bankrupted his company over and over and over again," Marcotte said during the podcast.

The speakers also discussed "AI-generated and real photographic imagery of over-the-top abuse" of migrants detained by the administration "and functionally kidnapped and renditioned to a foreign prison."

"And they shaved their heads. They made sure to like make their tattoos as garish as possible. They had videos of them bent over in these torture positions. And you see the effect that it has on the audiences at Trump’s 100-day rally. The crowd went absolutely nuts," she said.

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