Donald Trump truly “loves” his MAGA followers. But Donald Trump’s love is a very special kind of love. It is a love of a de facto cult leader and demagogue for his followers who give him narcissistic fuel, their money, adoration, loyalty, time, energy, and perhaps even lives and freedom.
Trump’s MAGA followers do in fact love him—or the idea of what he represents to them as he gives them permission to be horrible people. But this love is not mutual; Donald Trump, like other fake populist authoritarian leaders, views his MAGA people as useful idiots who are ultimately disposable.
In a recent conversation with me here at Salon, Stephen Hassan, who is one of the world’s leading experts on cults and “mind control”, explained the following about Trump’s special love as seen at the 2024 Republican National Convention:
That is predictable behavior among personality cults and other mind control and undue influence groups. The followers identify with the leader who was harmed. Pretending to be bloodied and injured is a form of shared identity and loyalty. Trump's being injured and presenting himself as almost immortal is part of his attempt to present himself as a hero and force of destiny who overcomes all kinds of trials and tribulations to conquer and achieve victory. That is the narrative that Trump and his propagandists are trying to push — and it seems to be working.
Some of Donald Trump’s most faithful followers have reportedly even begun wearing adult diapers at his rallies in a show of love and support for him.
In his fundraising emails and other communications, Donald Trump repeatedly tells his MAGA people how much he loves and cares for them. Last Thursday, Trump sent out the following message with the subject line, “I hand-wrote you a special note”:
YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT KEEP ME GOING!
I even hand-wrote you a special postcard note because I know you’re the #1 TRUMP PATRIOT!
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
Friend, I’ve felt your love through every single Indictment, Hoax, Raid, Arrest, and Witch Hunt.
YOU NEVER LEFT MY SIDE - I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU FOR THAT!
It’s because of you and you alone that I will NEVER SURRENDER!
But with so many of my signed postcards already claimed, I can only guarantee yours until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.
So if you want your very own piece of TRUMP HISTORY, ORDER TODAY!
In this new email, Donald Trump is mixing his love of his MAGA people with his and their hatred of Kamala Harris.
Dear Friend,
I’ve wanted to say this to you for a while, so I’m just going to come right out and say it:
I WOULD BE COMPLETELY LOST WITHOUT YOU!
Watching Kamala Harris run our country into the ground makes my BLOOD BOIL.
While I campaign around the country and answer any question the Fake News Media throws my way, she twiddles her thumbs and watches the world burn.
But your support gives me hope that we will save America from these radical leftists!
To be completely honest: Without you, America would’ve never survived four years of Crooked Kamala and her tyrannical regime.
But right now my campaign is at its most critical moment.
My mid-month deadline is in 48 HOURS, and Kamala Harris is raking in MILLIONS from the liberal billionaires pulling her strings.
So if you’ve EVER voted for me, I have one humble ask: Can I count on you to chip in any amount before my deadline and proudly STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP!
STAND WITH TRUMP
Friend, I know the GREAT KAMALA CRASH is wreaking havoc on hard working Americans like you, so if you can’t afford to donate, please don’t even give it a second thought.
Your endless love and support have proven to me that you’re a true TRUMP PATRIOT.
However, if you're able, your contribution before my critical deadline will go a long way toward MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
With the choice of JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate, Donald Trump now has a new partner in his MAGA love fest. Last Friday, JD Vance sent out an email with the subject line “President Trump & I love you, Friend”. The body of the email was not very loving as it railed against “Crooked Kamala is endorsed by the sick political class that HATES OUR COUNTRY” and amplified other lies and conspiracy theories that are drawn from the Q Anon cult, the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and other right-wing conspiracism and swamp gas.
JD Vance sent out this fundraising email in an attempt to make the MAGA people know that they are very important and that felon coup-plotting sexual assaulter as confirmed by a court of law Donald Trump wants to talk to them personally:
I just got off the phone with President Trump…
You came HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by President Trump himself.
So now that I’m recruiting the strongest MAGA Republicans to join my Official Vice Presidential Advisory Board, I want to extend the VERY FIRST invitation to YOU!
Vice Presidental Advisory Board
ACCEPT INVITATION
President Trump and I both agree - it’s time that REAL American Patriots like you have a say in how this country gets run.
When we take back the White House, we won’t be kowtowing to the swampy agendas of DEEP STATE bureaucrats. We’ll be taking advice from YOU.
ACCEPT INVITATION
YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON FOR THIS JOB.
Please, accept your exclusive invitation to my Vice Presidential Advisory Board TODAY. >>
TOGETHER, WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Thank you
Donald Trump and JD Vance and their agents are engaging in a version of what I describe as fascist love bombing. Psychology Today explains the practice of “love bombing” in the following way:
Love bombing is an attempt to influence another person with over-the-top displays of attention and affection. We’re not just talking about romantic gestures, like flowers and trips. Love bombing invariably includes lots of romantic conversation, long talks about “our future,” and long periods of staring into each other’s eyes. It’s the combination of words and deeds that makes love bombing so powerful, especially considering today’s technology. The ability to call, text, email, or connect on social media 24/7 makes it easier to be in constant contact with the object of one’s affection than ever before.
Love bombing works because humans have a natural need to feel good about who we are, and often we can’t fill this need on our own. Sometimes the reason is situational, brought on by an event, like divorce or job loss. Other times, it’s more constant and traces back to our childhood. Whatever the source, love bombers are experts at detecting low self-esteem and exploiting it. My emphasis added
Trumpism, like other forms of fascism and fake populist movements, preys upon lonely, isolated, socially atomized, and alienated people who are searching for community and meaning in their lives. Many such people are also experiencing emotional, financial, and other challenges. For these lost souls, the movement—or in this context the MAGA movement and Trumpism and their gatherings—are a type of surrogate family and form of political religion.
On this, leading political scientist Robert Putnam explains in a recent interview with the New York Times:
I think we’re in a really important turning point in American history. What I wrote in “Bowling Alone” is even more relevant now. Because what we’ve seen over the last 25 years is a deepening and intensifying of that trend. We’ve become more socially isolated, and we can see it in every facet in our lives. We can see it in the surgeon general’s talk about loneliness. He’s been talking recently about the psychological state of being lonely. Social isolation leads to lots of bad things. It’s bad for your health, but it’s really bad for the country, because people who are isolated, and especially young men who are isolated, are vulnerable to the appeals of some false community. I can cite chapter and verse on this: Eager recruits to the Nazi Party in the 1930s were lonely young German men, and it’s not an accident that the people who are attracted today to white nationalist groups are lonely young white men. Loneliness. It’s bad for your health, but it’s also bad for the health of the people around you.
In total, fascist and other fake populist authoritarian movements are the embodiment of the larger social forces and crises in a given society. As such, America’s democracy crisis not just about “politics” but an outgrowth/distillation of many other and deeper societal troubles. As I have repeatedly warned and will continue to here and elsewhere, sick societies produce sick leaders and sick political movements. Trumpism is but a symptom of much deeper problems that are greater than any one election cycle and will have to be combatted as such.
What will happen to Trump’s MAGA people and their love if Kamala Harris defeats him in November and he skulks off and withers away as he is no longer the center of American political life?
Will Trump’s MAGA people act like scorned lovers and sink into a mix of rage and denial? Or will they idolize (and idealize) Trump even more? Will the love the MAGA people felt for Trump turn to shame and embarrassment as they wonder how they could have allowed themselves to be seduced into such an abusive relationship for so long?
I believe that the following outcome is far more likely.
Donald Trump’s MAGA people have a deep need for love, affirmation, community and meaning in a society that they feel has increasingly rejected people like them. These needs are not going to disappear because Donald Trump is gone. The MAGA people will instead transfer their love to some other right-wing extremist and his or her movement. Will this love be as strong as passionate as they love they felt for Donald Trump? The American people and the world may soon find out.
