'Mass delusion fueled by charisma': Expert explains why Trump's followers still believe in him

When MAGA Republicans take offense at President Donald Trump's supporters being described as a "cult," critics have no problem citing specific examples of cult-like behavior.

For example, Trump is fond of wearing red ties — and MAGA men will wear red ties to express their solidarity. And Trump's female supporters, Salon's Amanda Marcotte argues, will alter their appearance in order to look more MAGA. For women, according to Marcotte, "Mar-a-Lago face" includes "a combination of aggressive plastic surgery, fake tan, and make-up spackled on so thick that it would crack."

Trump voters, critics say, engage in cultish behavior when they make death threats against Republicans for offering even mild, tepid criticism of the president.

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In an article published by The New Republic on June 2, Poulomi Saha — a professor at the University of California, Berkeley — lays out some reasons why critics of the MAGA movement often describe it as a "cult."

"It's hard to pinpoint exactly when the word cult affixed itself to Donald Trump and his movement," Saha explains. "It may have been as early as 2016, when, weeks before the Iowa Caucus, Trump declared with god-man-like aplomb that he could shoot someone in Times Square and not lose a vote. It may have been mid-2018, when Bob Corker, a Republican senator from Tennessee, fretted as he left office about the 'cultish' turn in the party. Or maybe it can be traced to a New York Times editorial board op-ed, published a few days before Corker’s comments made the news, which nervously noted the rapid transformation of the Republican Party into a machine for devotion to a single mortal."

Saha continues, "Certainly, by January 6, 2021, and the mouth-frothing fervor of Stop the Steal, cult had gone from being a political jab to a term of art, widely employed to describe the apparently invincible thrall in which Trumpism holds millions of Americans."

The UC Berkeley professor describes "Trumpism" as a "mass delusion fueled by charisma, shared grievance, aspiration, and a stubborn rejection of inherited truths" that "bears no small resemblance to…. insular, shadowy communities of faith and heterodoxy."

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Saha warns that for true believers, cult beliefs don't go away easily.

"Jonestown didn't end with the Kool-Aid; it became a metaphor for not heeding caution," Saha observes. "(Charles) Manson went to prison but became a cultural icon. (Josef) Stalin was embalmed, but his political blueprint persists — in India, in Turkey, in America. The cult documentary's finale is just the opening act of its cultural immortality."

Saha continues, "Our hunger for the collapse of Trump's movement isn't just about justice — it's about the thrill of witnessing a story we know how to consume. But history doesn't follow scripts. Faith and loyalty are not so easily shaken."

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Poulomi Saha's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.