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ABSTRACT: This article examines "the cult of Trump" to illustrate the concept of the group-trance, beginning with the cataclysmic damage it has wrought to U.S. society. It describes the familial, developmental, and religious origins which produced the loyalty and cruelty of his adherents, i.e., intrusive-mode childrearing. White evangelical religion and its advocacy of patriarchy, combat parenting, corporal punishment, and chauvinism-and the resulting fear induced in children- are assessed, as are the results-a personality primed for the group-fantasy of Racist Nationalism and for restaging childhood trauma by cleansing the homeland of Evil Others at national borders-the Central Purification Ritual of Trumpism. Examples of the intensity of the trance are discussed, including the notion of Trump as the messiah, endangerment to prove one's faith, and the callous indifference to suffering and death that characterizes what is in reality a death cult following a neofascistic savior.
A THREAT TO AMERICA
New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow contends that the U.S. is 1 N fighting a "soft civil war," and a former Democratic president and scores of liberals and conservatives fear that our democracy is in peril.1 The malefactors responsible are an unindicted co-conspirator, his co-conspirators and enablers, and Vladimir Putin's Russia.2 The country is facing the most daunting circumstances since the Civil War: the worst health emergency in over 100 years-with more than 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths projected by January;3 and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression-with more than 100,000 small businesses permanently closed,4 and millions of Americans filing for unemployment,5 fearing the loss of their homes,6 concerned about their next meal,7 and cities and states on the brink of financial ruin.8 In the midst of such turmoil, the country confronts a reckoning with White racism centuries in the making,9 and an ecosystem threatened by existential calamity.10
At the center of this national calamity is Donald J. Trump, a man described by his niece Mary L. Trump as "the most dangerous man in the world;"11 a president who, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward reports, deliberately misled the American people about the severity of the coronavirus,12 who, according to a bipartisan Senate report, colluded with Russia in the 2016 election13-and some believe may be a Russian agent14-and who twice solicited interference in the 2020 election.15 Can...