Trump’s Grip on MAGA Followers Explained

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on June 5, 2025

MAGA Cult Leader Donald J. Trump

An Editorial Opinion

President Donald J. Trump's grip on his MAGA cult followers is a complex interplay of several factors, including:

• Charisma and Manipulation: Trump possesses a captivating charisma and is a master manipulator.  He is skilled at identifying and exploiting his MAGA cult followers’ vulnerabilities.  Trump knows how to influence them subtly, often without them even realizing it.

  
  

• Filling Emotional Voids:  Trump’s MAGA cult followers are overwhelmingly White. They who are often alienated from communities of color, and they seek a sense of belonging and acceptance to other White communities across America.  Trump offers comforts them by openly repudiating “wokeness" and gratuitously browbeating racial minorities. Trump also exploits his cult followers' proclivity to disregard the true, documented, and ugly history of America’s inhumane treatment of women, racial minorities, Native Americans, and immigrants of color.

  
  

• Love Bombing: Trump and his MAGA cult followers shower new converts with love and acceptance, creating an intensely emotionally fulfilling atmosphere. Trump and his cult reinforce their dislike for self-respecting, independent women and communities of color, at home and abroad, by purposely and repeatedly attacking and disrespecting them.  With rare exceptions, Trump picks and showcases women for key government positions who have been surgically altered (via facelifts, breast augmentation, and Botox injections) to fit his definition of Aryan beauty and who are marginal achievers.

  
  

• Exploiting vulnerabilities: Trump targets individuals for his MAGA cult who are "hungry for a connection."  He adeptly identifies their weaknesses and insecurities. He then manipulates those vulnerabilities to solidify his control over them.

  
  

• Control Through Intoxicating Political Orgies and Baseless Propaganda: Trump uses a combination of intoxicating political orgies and baseless propaganda to break down inhibitions and make his MAGA cult followers more susceptible to his influence.  Truth is often the first casualty in Trump’s apparatus for political control. By all accounts, Trump's reputation for truth and veracity is extremely poor worldwide.

  
  

• Isolation and Control: Trump keeps his cult followers isolated from the real world by flooding them with nonstop MAGA propaganda on X, Truth Social, and other right-wing social media platforms.  This isolation, combined with a flood of grossly exaggerated hyperbole and outright lies, further erodes the resistance and critical thinking skills of devoted MAGA cult members.

  
  

• Fear and Retaliation:  As his authoritarian influence grows, Trumps resorts to fear and the weaponization of federal agencies to maintain control and keep his MAGA cult followers in line.  This enforcement technique creates an environment where MAGA followers feel they can't leave, even if they have doubts.  Those who muster up the courage to leave Trump's MAGA cult, like former “First Buddy” Elon Musk, are viciously attacked.

  
  

• Rewards for Violent Cult Behavior: Trump rewarded violent cult behavior by pardoning all of the January 6th rioters who were convicted of federal crimes, including the ones who were convicted of assaulting Capitol police officers and destroying government property. Trump called the rioters "patriots." He even dined with one of their leaders at Mar-a-Lago after this rioter was pardoned. Trump also awarded $5 million to the estate of Ashli Babbitt, one of the rioters who was killed by a police officer inside the Capitol during the rioting. No MAGA cult member haas publicly condemned or repudiated these pardons.

  
  

• Shared Delusion and Apocalyptic Worldview:  Trump preaches a delusional apocalyptic worldview centered around an invasion of America by undocumented migrants of color.  He has convinced his MAGA cult followers that migrant crime will ignite some kind of apocalyptic war inside the U.S. and that they will emerge to lead the world afterwards. This shared delusion further binds MAGA cult followers to Trump and his nonsensical plans. 

In essence, Trump has crafted a potent mix of charisma, love, acceptance, manipulation, control, fear to gain and maintain power over his MAGA cult followers, and rewards for violent behavior in furtherance of the cause.  MAGA cult followers are so enmeshed in Trump's twisted worldview that their existence and very survival becomes intrinsically tied to him. 

In the past, cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh had similar control over their followers.  Because they view Trump as some kind of “Savior,” it is impossible to reach the majority of his MAGA cult followers with factual presentations, logic, and rational arguments. As was the case with Jim Jones’ followers, most of Trump’s MAGA cult followers have drunk his poisonous Kool-Aid.