DEMOCRACY WATCHThink Twice Before Saying “Cult”
Some critics of Donald Trump liken the dynamic between the former president and his followers to a political cult, a claim rekindled by CBS/YouGov polling released last month. Survey shows intense support for ex-president despite indictments, but common claim against MAGA movement falls short of scientific rigor.
Some critics of Donald Trump liken the dynamic between the former president and his followers to a political cult, a claim rekindled by polling released last month. When asked in a CBS News/YouGov survey who tells them the truth, 71 percent of likely Republican primary voters named Trump over their family and friends (63 percent), conservative media (56 percent), and even religious leaders (42 percent).
While politics does share some core DNA with cults, and Trump maintains an unusually powerful hold over his MAGA supporters, the reality of the situation is more complicated than a survey, or a pundit, can capture, says Bethany Burum, a research scientist in psychology who teaches a Harvard course on cult behavior. The interview with the Gazette has been edited for clarity and length.
GAZETTE: The new polling suggests a cult around the former president, according to his detractors. What do you think?
BURUM: I tend to think of cultiness on a spectrum and there are elements of that in a lot of politics. Donald Trump is one of the more extreme examples, where he does have all this loyalty. But if you think about my definition, it’s on the border. Are people moving their beliefs away from the general society? A large portion of the country thinks Trump is great. Now that he’s risen to prominence — you can ask how he got here — it is a pretty normal belief to have in certain sections of the country.
I don’t know what percentage of people follow bad advice that Trump gives, but that would be an example similar to what we see in a cult — where you’re doing something against your interest. He made claims during COVID about certain medical treatments that didn’t work and might be harmful. People trying those treatments were doing something against their interest; people who give him more money than they really should are acting against their interest. And there are some people who do that. There are probably a lot of people, though, who don’t do any of that stuff. For them, it’s a little trickier to determine whether they are acting against their interest because of the diffuse influence of a vote.
