\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tDonald Trump\u2019s supporters have been nothing if not loyal to their leader. For the past decade, MAGA has stood by their man through 34 felony convictions<\/a>, endless hate-filled rhetoric<\/a>, the killings<\/a> of innocent Americans, and potential war crimes<\/a>, all while blatantly disregarding the Constitution and constantly<\/a> lying<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tMAGA\u2019s fanatical devotion to the president has prompted some experts<\/a> to suggest that it constitutes a cult. Daniella Mestyanek Young<\/a>, author of The Culting of America<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>is one of them. \u201cWe’re not being hyperbolic when we call [MAGA] a cult,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tMore specifically, MAGA is a cult of personality, says Steven Hassan, PhD<\/a>, author of The Cult of Trump<\/em><\/a> and founder of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, a consulting and educational organization that helps people leave destructive cults and authoritarian groups and heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tA cult of personality is the \u201cgodlike glorification<\/a>\u201d of a charismatic leader whose followers perceive as superhuman and infallible, like the Jim Jones-led Peoples Temple \u2014 which ended in the massacre of more than 900 people at Jonestown<\/a> in 1978 \u2014 and the Children of God<\/a>, a Christian apocalyptic cult founded by David Berg in 1968. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tPolitical parties can also operate as cults of personality, Mestyanek Young tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cBeyond Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, there are clear examples of political movements, including Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China, and the hereditary leadership system in North Korea,\u201d she says. In this case, it\u2019s the MAGA arm of the Republican Party\u2019s devotion to Trump \u2014 especially those who subscribe to the QAnon<\/a> conspiracy theory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn addition to the requisite charismatic leader, MAGA also shares other key characteristics with cults<\/a>, like black-and-white thinking, and viewing politics as a fight of good versus evil. Like other cults, MAGA has adopted their own version of reality and history \u2014 most notably, claiming the 2020 election was stolen. Along the same lines, Trump has managed to get his MAGA followers to reject rational analysis and critical thinking, and support his interests and positions<\/a> no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump appealed to those who had lost faith in the government and were looking for something (or someone) to believe in. His campaign rhetoric promising to \u201cdrain the swamp\u201d \u2014 or rid America of corrupt politicians, lobbyists, and unnecessary governmental bureaucracy and oversight \u2014 resonated with those who felt disenfranchised and abandoned by traditional political parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tBut there are signs that Trump\u2019s grip on his followers is starting to crumble. A few weeks ago, after he threatened to wipe out<\/a> a civilization, verbally attacked<\/a> the Pope, and posted an AI-generated image<\/a> of himself as Jesus Christ, which he later claimed was him as a doctor, several prominent MAGA and Trump supporters \u2014 including Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>, Alex Jones<\/a>, Tucker Carlson<\/a>, Candance Owens<\/a>, and Megyn Kelly<\/a> \u2014 broke with the president. And things have only escalated from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tDeclining approval ratings<\/a> suggest rank-and-file MAGA members have begun to jump ship, including some of Trump\u2019s most ardent<\/a> conservative Christian supporters. Does this spell the beginning of the end of the MAGA cult? If so, what happens next? And is now the time to reach out to family members and friends who may be rethinking their position?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\tThe birth of MAGA <\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\tWhen the Tea Party formed in 2009, one month after President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the members were an odd mix of right-wing populists and free market extremists, says Lawrence Rosenthal, PhD<\/a>, the chair and lead researcher of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies and author of Empire of Resentment: Populism’s Toxic Embrace of Nationalism<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThe Tea Party\u2019s fundamental ideological point was aligned with free market fundamentalists, so there was ferocious organization against expanding health benefits under what came to be known as Obamacare,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn 2015, the Tea Party\u2019s focus shifted toward the question of immigration and the fear that white Americans were deliberately being replaced by immigrants in society \u2014 also known as replacement theory. \u201cThere are two characters in replacement theory,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cOne is the immigrants, who Trump often calls \u2018an invasion force,\u2019 and the second is the elite who are conspiring to bring that immigrant population into America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump, who was then running for president, tapped into Republicans\u2019 feelings of resentment toward immigrants and anyone else who wasn\u2019t white. By that point, he had already spent four years falsely claiming<\/a> that Obama wasn\u2019t born in the United States, launching a conspiracy theory known as birtherism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s almost like how when you’re going to market a new product, you find a way of test marketing it to the public \u2014 that’s what Trump did with birtherism,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cHe became the most prominent spokesperson for birtherism, and that is his initial toe in the water of national politics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump also took advantage of the fact that many white Americans no longer understood their position in a country that had twice elected a Black president. Replacement thinking galvanized right-wing populists on an unprecedented mass level, taking advantage of existing national traditions of racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cDonald Trump emerged to make explicit what had for 40 years been dog-whistle, wink-wink Republican appeals that had turned right populists into the party\u2019s most important electoral base,\u201d Rosenthal explains. \u201cTrump\u2019s 2016 electoral campaign put this base, and most of the rest of Republican regulars, into a coalition that includes white nationalists and neo-Nazis, groups that previously had not had a role in national politics since the 1930s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\tTrump\u2019s cult of personality expands<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\tAfter Trump won in 2016, MAGA quickly became less about ideology and more about its leader \u2014 who, it turned out, was quite comfortable with the adulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump\u2019s cult of personality began before he ever held political power, Hassan says, taking shape in the 1970s and 1980s, when he gained attention cosplaying as a successful businessman<\/a> while taking bailouts from his father<\/a>. \u201cPeople did what he told them to do and didn’t ever say \u2018bad idea,\u2019\u201d Hassan tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cThey would give him ideas so he could claim credit for them.\u201d Trump\u2019s reach expanded even further in the early 2000s when people welcomed him into their homes as a reality TV host. By the time he announced his presidential run<\/a> in 2015, Trump had established himself as one of America\u2019s leading businessmen \u2014 even if his record didn\u2019t actually back that up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump\u2019s message also happened to appeal to religious voters. His calls to \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d not only attracted white evangelicals<\/a>, but many members of other conservative religions, like Mormons and Catholics, as well. \u201cTrump shows up and pulls all of these groups into his cult of personality,\u201d Mestyanek Young says. \u201cHe went way bigger than just the evangelical church.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tMAGA also attracted people who had previously gotten out of insular religious groups, Hassan says. \u201cThey left the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Moonies, Scientology, but they never learned about brainwashing and mind control,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo when something new came around that resonated familiarity and certainty, they went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump gained even more devotees by way of QAnon: a far-right political conspiracy theory and cult that emerged in 2017 and posits that he\u2019s the only one who can save the country from an elite cabal of Satanic, pedophilic Democrats. Though it was initially viewed as a fringe group, by 2020, Republican politicians who actively embraced QAnon, like Greene<\/a>, were winning elections \u2014 indicating that, at least in some parts of the country, people were buying into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\tMAGA starts to crack<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\tMestyanek Young first recognized signs of weakness in the MAGA cult when Trump refused to release FBI documents investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. \u201cPeople join a cult for the mission,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd Trump’s mission for the last decade has been \u2018We’re going to drain the swamp. We’re going to perp walk the Obamas and the Clintons. We’re going to pull thousands of little white children out of cages where they’ve been trafficked, and I’m going to give you a new America.\u2019 And then he just slashed his mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThis is something Mestyanek Young saw play out firsthand. She was born into the Christian religious cult Children of God and escaped at age 15. The group promoted sex<\/a> as a way to get closer to God, and was under investigation throughout the 1980s and 1990s for abducting and abusing children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTheir mission was to be prepared for Jesus, who they believed was coming back any day. \u201cAnd so 10,000 people, for 50 years, lived in these commune armies around the globe and devoted their entire lives to this,\u201d Mestyanek Young says. Everything changed in 2009<\/a>, when there was a dramatic shift in the cult\u2019s beliefs and structure known as \u201cThe Reboot.\u201d \u201cTheir new leadership was like, \u2018You know what? Jesus told us he’s not coming back in our lifetime anymore,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that was it: the mission was gone.\u201d At that point, many members lost faith and left the cult.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn cults, shifts like these happen when there\u2019s a \u201ccrack in the brainwashing,\u201d Mestyanek Young says. For Greene \u2014 a vocal supporter of QAnon \u2014 this was Trump\u2019s refusal to release the Epstein files. \u201cIt was shortly thereafter that she started speaking out against him<\/a>,\u201d she says. \u201cI really do feel like MAGA has been bleeding out ever since then. They’ve been trying to come up with a new mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\tBreaking a cult of personality<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\tAs more people leave, MAGA is gradually disintegrating. \u201cI’m hearing from people who have become disillusioned and are leaving,\u201d Hassan says. \u201cPeople leaving MAGA are messaging [me] online, citing my book or saying they realize it is a cult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTrump\u2019s attacks on his former allies<\/a> who are now critical of him also aren\u2019t doing him any favors, Hassan says. \u201cThat is bringing a lot of people out of the commitment to believing that Trump is the savior and deserves to be the president,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo the connection now is, if people are losing faith in Trump, can we make them lose faith in their senators and congressmen for blindly supporting and making allegiance to Trump? Connecting the dots is what’s missing for a lot of people leaving the GOP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tStill, Trump still has immense power within the Republican Party, and is endorsing<\/a> MAGA politicians in the spring primaries, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>, who is running for Senate. Ultimately, November\u2019s midterm elections will determine how the Trump-backed candidates perform against Democratic opponents \u2014 especially if he continues to alienate some of his own party. In the meantime, Trump is attempting to buy the loyalty of those involved in Jan. 6 and other \u201cvictims of lawfare and weaponization\u201d by the Biden administration using a nearly $1.8 billion slush fund<\/a> of taxpayer money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThough Trump may end up losing his base, that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll be replaced with another leader \u2014 at least not with his cooperation. \u201cThis is characteristic of leaders like Trump \u2014 they don’t cultivate a successor,\u201d Rosenthal says. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a free-for-all when he\u2019s gone. He can\u2019t hand it off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tPlus, as Mestyanek Young points out, when it comes to cults of personality, leaders aren\u2019t interchangeable, so his followers will prop him up in whatever way they need to. \u201cIn this case, specifically, if Trump is gone, J.D. Vance is going to be the president \u2014 and nobody loves J.D. Vance,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to have a personality to take over a cult of personality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tBut there are still plenty of MAGA supporters who truly believe that Trump will save us all \u2014 and their views may never change. \u201cThey\u2019re what we\u2019ve termed \u2018never-lefters,\u2019\u201d Mestyanek Young says. \u201cThese [are] people that still want to be in an extreme form of belief because it does something for them, and so they will find another thing to be extremists about. And that is what is very concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tMeanwhile, both Hassan and Mestyanek Young stress that now is the time to reach out to MAGA family members, friends, and coworkers \u2014 especially if you suspect that they might be receptive \u2014 and ask open-ended questions. \u201cAsk them to explain why they liked Trump in the first place, and what they think right now, because cracks are really good at letting light in,\u201d Mestyanek Young says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tAnd just as importantly, listen to them. \u201c[Cult members] get themselves out when they have access to nonmembers who are treating them with dignity, respect, and genuine curiosity,\u201d Hassan says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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