In his book, “A Higher Loyalty,”
former FBI Director James Comey
characterized President Donald Trump as a
Mafia kingpin who has a warped notion of
loyalty and utter disdain for the rule of
law, and views the FBI as his personal
investigative service.
“The boss
in complete control. The loyalty oaths.
The us-versus-them worldview. The lying
about all things, large and small, in
service to some code of loyalty that put
the organization above morality and above
the truth,” Comey
wrote.
Demanding complete loyalty from
subordinates, exerting absolute control and
caring only about his own needs and
interests, Donald Trump behaves like a mob
boss rather than a democratic leader. Mob
bosses are also a form of cult leadership.
As a raging narcissist and a charismatic leader who
claims to know everything and have all the
answers, Donald Trump displays many
classic and stereotypical characteristics
of a cult leader. Cults are known for
overzealous and unquestioning commitment
to the person in charge. An authoritarian who has even been compared to Stalin, Trump, the self-proclaimed
“stable genius,” demands loyalty and effusive praise from his underlings, as his
bizarrely cringeworthy
Cabinet
meetings have demonstrated.
Although he apparently has
learned little about governing, the President has declared he is
in charge and knows what he wants, as he
consolidates his power, fires one official
after another who disagrees with him and
surrounds himself with loyalists. Indeed,
nothing about the Trump White House is
normal, yet his minions behave as if
everything is fine, and short of a few
Republican outliers and retiring
lawmakers critical of Trump and their party,
the GOP faithful maintain their silence.
No matter what Trump does, his followers stand by him, despite his dishonesty and antidemocratic tendencies, as he embodies the very swamp he
promised he would drain. This moment in time
reminds me of the cartoon by K.C. Green, in which a dog sits at the table
in a burning house, drinks a cup of coffee
and says, “This is fine.”
Amid glaringly narrow public
approval, the current President is flanked
by his base – the Christian right, the NRA,
Fox News and Infowars, white nationalists,
tax cutters and kleptocrats. White
evangelicals defend Trump, ignoring the allegations of
sexual assault, extramarital affairs and
payoffs to porn stars. Franklin Graham
declared Trump stopped sinning when he became president, while Jerry Falwell, Jr. claimed Jesus “never told Caesar
how to run Rome.”
His black supporters
notwithstanding, Trump seems to preside over a white cult that feeds off white resentment
and alienation after the civil rights
movement, and must undo the legacy of the
first black president.
Signs of this include him
supporting punitive policies against people
of color, such as the rollback of federal civil
rights enforcement a bogus voter fraud commission
that seemed intent on voter suppression,
undoing the Obama legacy to address mass incarceration, not being serious about police brutality, ICE roundups and the deportation
of immigrants.
The polarizing “us-versus-them” mentality, and the sinister
beliefs associated with cults, are abundant
in Trump. Under the slogans “Make America
Great Again,” Trump has promised to return
the country to a mythical heyday for white
America. Presumably that would be a return to the 1950s when the economy was booming and America dominated the world.
But that was also before the modern
civil rights era, at a time of legal Jim
Crow segregation against black people,
blatant sexism and homophobia, and
anti-communist witch hunts.
Restoring this glorious place has
brought on what Trump seems to view as enemies – whether it’s the news media, or
kneeling black football players or Muslims.
Some of his unrealistic solutions
to “Make America Great Again” include imposing steel tariffs, building a wall or bringing back
coal mining jobs. His other disturbing ideas
include mass
deportations and travel bans, separating
immigrant parents from their babies, arming
teachers and executing drug dealers.
Trump leads a cult of paranoia, with policy dictated by
conspiracy theories of a “deep state” and
“secret societies” and people opposing critical thinking and creating their own facts to
match their own reality.
Consider former White House press
secretary Sean
Spicer’s
claim the Trump inauguration had the
largest audience ever, or when press
secretary Sarah Sanders said when Trump
called Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” it
was not a racial slur, or the report by the Republicans
in the House Intelligence Committee clearing
the
Trump campaign of collusion with
Russia, while a vigorous investigation by
Robert Mueller continued.
This administration, like typical
cults, lacks accountability and
transparency, and serves to benefit the leader.
A cult of corruption and ethics deficiency, Trump’s
devotees emulate their leader, with former
HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s $31,000 office furniture, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and
his doors
that
initially cost $139,000, Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin’s million-dollar military
flights and the 10-day
European
trip of former Veterans Affairs
Secretary David Shulkin that mixed meetings
with sightseeing. Shulkin’s wife accompanied
him and her airfare and meals were paid for
by the government.
This, as 130 appointees, including the President’s
daughter and son-in-law, lack permanent
security clearances. And others resigned or
were booted from the premises – sometimes without their
personal belongings – for security issues such as domestic violence and “serious financial crimes”. “This President in unethical, and
untethered to truth and institutional
values. His leadership is transactional, ego
driven and about personal loyalty,” wrote Comey, painting a picture of Trump as a
leader demanding allegiance from Comey as a
condition for keeping his job. It was a
pledge Comey was unwilling to give. “I
remember thinking in that moment that the
president doesn’t understand the FBI’s role
in American life,” Comey added.
Trump also expected the FBI
director to serve as the presidential fixer
and prove to the first lady the falsehood of
the “pee pee” tape mentioned in the Steele
dossier, the alleged encounter between Trump
and prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. Comey had
sworn an oath to support and defend the US
Constitution not the President. This is what
separates a democracy from an organized
crime syndicate, or better yet, cults.
Trump is a dangerous cult leader
who will destroy democracy if we allow him.
It is incumbent upon us to resist drinking
the orange Kool-Aid.
