The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin courted controversy when she denied that supporters of Donald Trump behaved like cult members.
Palin’s attempt to deny that Trump has a cultlike following, however, prompted predictable pushback on social media by those who thought her attempt to define a cult actually precisely described Trump’s enthusiastic fan base.
“The definition of a cult,” Palin told the rightwing network Newsmax, “is a group of people who are excessively supporting one another and a cause. [It’s] all about conformity and compliance and intolerance of anyone who doesn’t agree with what their mission is.”
“Sarah Palin, Asked If Maga is A Cult, Denies it, Then States Why They Are,” wrote one popular anti-Trump account, @realTuckFrumper.
Though Trump has been criminally indicted at state and federal levels, and faces likely further indictments over his election subversion and incitement of the January 6 Capitol attack, he maintains his grip on a majority of Republican politicians and voters.
According to a recent CBS/YouGov poll, 61% of likely Republican primary voters plan to back Trump over his closest rival – the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, who is 38 points behind – and the rest of the primary field.
In the same survey, 76% of likely Republican voters said Trump’s 37-count federal indictment over his retention of classified national security information was a politically motivated attack.
The former president has long demanded absolute loyalty from followers while lashing out at critics and rivals, deriding even his mildest doubters as Rinos – “Republicans in name only” – or worse.
Earlier this week, the New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism and fascism, told NPR: “I see Trump as a cult leader. So [his followers] are cult followers, personality cult followers.”
Asked why Trump told Politico he would “never leave” the presidential race, Ben-Ghiat said: “He’s telling [his supporters] that he will never abandon them. Even if he’s convicted, he will stay the course.”
In her appearance on Newsmax, Palin segued into a rambling complaint about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, a common pro-Trump talking point around his classified records indictment.
Palin also seemed to suggest that though Trump was not a cult leader, his extreme predicament in relation to assorted legal authorities represented a kind of quasi-religious purification.
Palin said: “This two-tier system of justice is – Well, you know what it’s doing – it’s adding fuel to the fire. And when you look at President Trump and how fired up he is, well, when you go through the fire, he come out lit [sic] and that’s exactly what we want and what we need today in order to take back our country, get government off our backs, on our side, and make America great again.
“I’m thankful that President Trump is so fired up.”
