The Right Trump Question?

Many friends have asked me why Trump does such hateful and hurtful things. This is the wrong question. Many mental health experts have diagnosed Trump with several serious mental illnesses.

But hundreds of thousands of Americans with these mental illnesses cause few problems. The correct question? Why do tens of millions of Americans blindly follow Trump even when he hurts them?

I am reminded of the movie Being There. Peter Sellers played a simple-minded man “Chauncey Gardiner” who lived his entire life as a gardener on a wealthy man’s estate. He ends up advising the President by making empty platitudes about gardening.

Some of Trump’s closest advisors have said that he is an idiot. No different than “Chauncey Gardiner.” People project their own beliefs and desires on someone like that.

The New York Times recently interviewed a dozen Midwest farmers. All had voted for Trump. All were on the edge of bankruptcy as a direct result of his policies. They used Biden’s environmental programs to get solar electric panels and heat pumps. Trump canceled their promised payments.

They used to sell grain to USAID. Trump killed that. Trump’s tariffs are killing their exports. Did they regret voting for Trump? Not one.

This is cult behavior. Trump may be clueless about running the country. But he has some accidental instincts for being a cult leader. He throws out endless contradictory statements. Followers hear the bits they like and ignore the other bits. “Oh, he doesn’t really mean that.” Actually, he doesn’t really mean anything. Except the hate and wanting to be a dictator.

Hatred, demands of loyalty, and unpredictability are cult leader core strategies. Trump has no actual goals or vision. Just a vengeful desire to get back at anyone who disrespected him. And a lust to make people grovel.

Several of my close friends were in cults. No one consciously joins a cult. They join something that sounds new and exciting. Something that seems to offer a fresh perspective on the meaning of life and a chance to be part of something big.

At the recent “Hands Off” rally was a sign “The Cruelty is the Point.” This is part of Trump’s being. He is an unhappy and small-minded man. Watching others suffer from his actions makes him feel bigger for a short while.

But in a cult the cruelty has another purpose. It builds a bond. Something like the hazing rituals in fraternities that are now supposedly illegal.

Four years ago, I wrote about the book Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me). I highly recommend this book. One example is the woman with an abusive boyfriend who keeps coming back to him. The abuse causes the woman’s self-esteem to drop. Which increases her grasping for the abuser. It also becomes familiar. Most animals will avoid pain. But humans will happily endure pain if the alternative is to try something unfamiliar.

Cult leaders constantly test the loyalty of their followers by causing mental and physical pain. And the followers stay focused on showing their loyalty. It is hard to know if Trump meant to crash the economy and stock market as a loyalty test. But once it happens it becomes a loyalty test.

How do we overcome this? By offering something better? Unfortunately, the mirror image of the abuse cycle is the “crisis of rising expectations”. If Joe is kind and generous to Sally, then Sally’s self-esteem rises. She expects ever more from Joe just to feel that she is getting what she newly deserves.

This happened with Joe. Joe Biden. He lowered drug prices. He invested in clean, high paying jobs in technology and sustainable energy. His stimulus package caused some temporary inflation, but millions of jobs were saved. By the end of his term inflation was down and the border was secure. You might think people would be grateful. But it just made them want more.

Ultimately it is up to we the people to be more educated. To have a deeper, broader and longer term understanding of what will build a better future. To reject hate and seek a win for all.