Is Trumpism a cult?
People will sometimes refer to religious denominations they disapprove of as "cults," but the term has a specific meaning. A cult has the following aspects:
1. A powerful, charismatic leader whose word may not be questioned.
2. The requirement of absolute loyalty - no lukewarm cult members, you're either all in or all out.
3. Members turn over their finances to the cult to prove their commitment
The first point definitely applies to Trump. To his base, he's never wrong, in fact, he's incapable of being wrong, because by definition, whatever he does is automatically the right thing, just because he's doing it. The second point also applies. A good example of this is John McCain, who was a staunch conservative for his entire life, but since that one vote to not overturn the Affordable Care Act, he might as well have been Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Trump followers now hate McCain with a passion, because anything less than absolute loyalty to Trump is unacceptable. Just this past week, conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage, a fanatical Trump supporter, has been subjected to vicious attacks on his Twitter feed after his criticism of Trump's abandonment of the Kurds.
The third point doesn't seem to fit, however, as no one has, to my knowledge, turned over their finances to Trump to go live in a Trump compound somewhere. Although, if you sign up to donate to Trump's campaign, you will find that you're making regular contributions, and the website apparently doesn't have an option to disable this. Also, I'm signed up to receive solicitations from his campaign, and it's a relentless barrage of panicked demands for more money. So some individuals may be susceptible to this.
The demographic of poor, white, rural Trump supporters overlaps significantly with the kind of people who tend to contribute a large portion of their income to televangelists. It would be interesting to conduct a study to determine if contributions to televangelists have decreased during Trump's presidency.
1. A powerful, charismatic leader whose word may not be questioned.
2. The requirement of absolute loyalty - no lukewarm cult members, you're either all in or all out.
3. Members turn over their finances to the cult to prove their commitment
The first point definitely applies to Trump. To his base, he's never wrong, in fact, he's incapable of being wrong, because by definition, whatever he does is automatically the right thing, just because he's doing it. The second point also applies. A good example of this is John McCain, who was a staunch conservative for his entire life, but since that one vote to not overturn the Affordable Care Act, he might as well have been Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Trump followers now hate McCain with a passion, because anything less than absolute loyalty to Trump is unacceptable. Just this past week, conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage, a fanatical Trump supporter, has been subjected to vicious attacks on his Twitter feed after his criticism of Trump's abandonment of the Kurds.
The third point doesn't seem to fit, however, as no one has, to my knowledge, turned over their finances to Trump to go live in a Trump compound somewhere. Although, if you sign up to donate to Trump's campaign, you will find that you're making regular contributions, and the website apparently doesn't have an option to disable this. Also, I'm signed up to receive solicitations from his campaign, and it's a relentless barrage of panicked demands for more money. So some individuals may be susceptible to this.
The demographic of poor, white, rural Trump supporters overlaps significantly with the kind of people who tend to contribute a large portion of their income to televangelists. It would be interesting to conduct a study to determine if contributions to televangelists have decreased during Trump's presidency.
