President Donald Trump’s supporters are in a political cult, explained a former Republican congressman. But they can be deprogrammed.
Interviewing filmmaker Mark Vicente about his upcoming documentary “The Narcissist’s Playbook” — which is described on IMDB as studying “four self-aware malignant narcissists” as they reveal “their manipulation methods, victim accounts, and expert analysis of narcissistic abuse patterns” — former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois argued on his Substack that Trump supporters can be gradually eased out of their cult-like behavior.
“I often hear from people I engage with, in this case, Trump supporters, when they are able to see the truth and get out of that, so many of them, Mark, will ask me, ‘Joe, why the f—— didn't I see what was going on?’” Walsh told Vicente. “How did I not see what he was doing?”
Vicente replied that former cult members can be soothed if you remind them of the positive values that led them to join the cult in the first place. These, Vicente argued, can be preserved even after one leaves the cult itself.
“You want to change the world and the person says, ‘You know I'm going to help you do that because that's my mission,’ and there's a surge in your chest because your whole life, if you're politically active or whatever, you care about the world, you want that,” Vicente said. “So you become enamored with somebody that's offering you back your values. You're so attached to that that you can't see what's really going on. And you explain away. You take all the red flags and you turn them pink.”
To get to the point where those pink flags can be re-identified as red, however, the cult member must first be led to the realization they have been duped. Earlier in the conversation, Walsh explained how he has accomplished this with the many Trump supporters in his life.
“Just an anecdote: As I talk to people in the political world who love Trump, I find that I'm best able to help them see the light bulb and see the truth when I put nuggets in truth in front of them repeatedly and they realize they've been lied to,” Walsh explained.
Last month Walsh used his Substack to point out one big issue where Trump supporters’ own stated values can be used to call out their cult-like behavior.
“I thought you wanted him to end wars all over the world,” Walsh wrote on his Substack. “You said you wanted him to end American entanglement in conflicts and wars around the world. America shouldn’t be involved in these wars, you said. That’s why you’re voting for Trump, you said.” Then, despite Trump’s actions against Denmark, Venezuela and Iran, they still support him.
He added, “And you don’t like when people call you a cult, Trump voters? What else are people to think when you voted for Trump to get us the hell out of wars around the world, and instead he gets us involved in wars around the world and starts new wars, and you still sing his praises and support him? What are we to think, MAGA, but that you are a cult?”
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a psychiatrist who taught at Yale and authored the book “Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul,” told this journalist for Salon shortly before the 2020 election that Trump would likely reject the results if he lost because of his “pathological narcissism,” which trickles down to his supporters.
“Those with pathological narcissism are abusive and dangerous because of their catastrophic neediness,” Lee explained. “Think of a drowning person gasping for air: a survival instinct just may push you down in order to save one’s own life. In the manner that the body needs oxygen, the soul needs love, and self-love is what a toxic narcissist is desperately lacking. This is why he must overcompensate, creating for himself a self-image where he is the best at everything, never wrong, better than all the experts, and a ‘stable genius.'”
She later added, “Just as one once settled for adulation in lieu of love, one may settle for fear when adulation no longer seems attainable. Rage attacks are common, for people are bound to fall short of expectation for such a needy personality—and eventually everyone falls into this category. But when there is an all-encompassing loss, such as the loss of an election, it can trigger a rampage of destruction and reign of terror in revenge against an entire nation that has failed him.”
