The term cult of personality is sometimes attached to the relationship between President Donald Trump and the most dedicated members of his support base. But what does the evidence suggest? Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, an expert in the psychology of zealotry, has outlined three primary characteristics commonly shared by cults:
1. A charismatic leader who becomes an object of worship beyond any meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of truth, power, and authority.
Trump seems to fit the bill. Allegiance to Trump currently appears to be the only path to political relevance within the Republican party. The majority of his base repeats his demonstrably false statements: "The 2020 election was rigged." "I never had sex with that porn star." "My crowds are the largest."
The cult process is marked by the gradual creation of an alternate reality in which the truth is what the leader says it is because he said so. There is no legitimate opposition to a cult leader. Any challenge to the leader’s conduct or claims is seen as a hostile, bad-faith attack on the group.
Those who wish to hold Trump accountable from the inside are generally labeled RINOs, traitors, and snitches to be condemned.
Viewed from the cultist process perspective, then, the pre- and post-New York City guilty verdict response of Trump’s core supporters (and the politicians who represent them) was predictable: The courts are corrupt, the judge is biased, the trial is rigged, deep state forces conspired to destroy us.
After the New York conviction, Trump's dedicated supporters and their representatives in effect chose Trump over the ongoing legitimacy of the judicial processes. Cult leaders cannot be wrong. They can only be wronged.
2. A process of indoctrination, coercive persuasion, or thought reform........© Psychology Today