On July 16, 2015, we posted, “Is your favorite candidate a psychopath? How to tell.” The post listed ten criteria and, by coincidence, ten Presidential candidates, and asked readers to decide which was most likely to be a psychopath.
My scoring, even back then, when Donald Trump had much less public exposure, was that he clearly “won.”
It consists of the following twenty criteria, which are to be scored 0, 1, or 2 (as in “not,’ “somewhat,” and “extremely,”):
Out of a maximum score of 40, the cut-off for the label of “psychopath” is 30 in the United States and 25 in the United Kingdom. A cut-off score of 25 is also sometimes used for research purposes.
We left it to readers to decide which Presidential candidate most earned the description, “psychopath.”
It contained the same twenty criteria, but with expanded descriptions of each, along with our scoring and the reasons. Trump scored 39 out of 40 on the psychopath scale.
It appears in hundreds of peer-reviewed psychology papers and is considered the “gold-standard” self-report scale for grandiose narcissism (as opposed to “vulnerable” narcissism, which requires other instruments).
It covers: Entitlement / Grandiosity (Narcissism), Manipulation / Cynicism (Machiavellianism), and Callousness / Impulsivity / Lack of empathy (Psychopathy).
The subject is ranked on five levels: 1 = Strongly Disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly Agree, and there are 27 questions.
I had my own opinions, but out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to apply those rankings to Donald Trump. The AI’s assessment: “A clinician seeing these traits might say: ‘This person shows extremely elevated narcissistic traits, with strong malevolent tendencies.
“‘If corroborated in functional assessment, they could meet criteria for NPD — potentially among the most extreme seen.’”
By any impartial measure, there can be no doubt that Donald J. Trump is a psychopath with narcissistic personality disorder and strong malevolent tendencies.
Given his massive political and military power and his past and ongoing misdeeds, Donald Trump can be considered the single most dangerous and harmful human on planet Earth.
It’s not a close call. Anyone who can understand a newspaper, radio, or television knows that Trump is mentally and psychologically unfit for the power he holds.
This leaves us with the questions: Who supports Trump? What is their mental state?
It widely is recognized that Trump’s MAGA group has all the markings of a cult.
The word “cult” derives from the Latin term cultus, meaning “worship.” Cults are groups with unusual, often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals.
Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults.
Common Features of People Who Tend to Join Cults
A. Personality traits
High suggestibility/compliance: Prone to follow accept radical ideaswithout critical evaluation.
Strong need for belonging/affiliation: Unusually strong desire for social connection, often after social isolation or major life transitions.
Low self-esteem/identity diffusion: Struggles with identity or self-worth may seek clear rules, purpose, or a defined role
Openness to irrational experience: Receptivity to unusual ideas, especially in spiritual or fringe groups.
Authoritarian submission: Tendency to defer to powerful authority figures.
Low critical thinking/cognitive closure: Preference for certainty and clear answers, Uncomfortable with ambiguity.
B. Life circumstances/situational factors
Major transitions —such as moving to a new city, graduating, failing, losing a loved one, or other disruptions — make people vulnerable.
Isolation or marginalization: Emotional or physical isolation can make group inclusion feel intensely rewarding.
Search for meaning/existential crises: People grappling with purpose or identity are more likely to be drawn to a structured ideology.
Poverty, especially combined with feelings of unfair treatment by others — relatives, bosses, “the world.”
C. Emotional traits
High emotionalintensity: Strong fears, hatreds, and loves. Desire for vengeance, retribution.
Heightened anxiety or insecurity: Desire for certainty and control makes strict rules and hierarchical systems appealing.
Idealism: Strong desire to “save the world” or to achieve a higher purpose.
D. Cognitive style
Black-and-white thinking: “Us vs. them” worldview.
Suspension of skepticism: A willingness to accept extraordinary claims without evidence. Highly influenced by conspiracy theories.
Absorption of fantasy-proneness: Tendency to become deeply involved in mental imagery, rituals, or charismatic narratives.
The above are common features of “true believers.” Regarding the MAGA cult, these are the people Donald Trump referred to when he said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
Not all MAGAs are true believers, however. Most of the politicians in the Republican Party recognize Trump’s psychopathy, yet they act like true believers. These are the psychopathic sycophants.
Some may even be highly intelligent, educated, and accomplished. This group is very well-represented in cults — often more than the “vulnerable/low self-esteem” stereotype.
Psychopathic sycophants are: Not true believers; Not passive users; Not vulnerable idealists; They are opportunists who consciously exploit the leader’s pathology.
They recognize the leader’s: Fragility, delusions, need for adoration, lack of impulse control, and lack of self-awareness. They weaponize those weaknesses for their own gain.
Think: Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Kristi Noem, Elise Stefanik, Mike Johnson.
Think: Himmler, Goebbels, Beria, Bannon, Rasputin
These individuals hold true power while pretending to flatter the unfortunate egomaniacal, narcissistic figurehead who demands attention.
The Four Essential Groups in an Authoritarian Cult
Group
Who They Are
What They Want
Core Psychological Driver
Why They Support the Cult
Power Level
1 The Leader / The Narcissist Center
The authoritarian figure — often grandiose, manipulative, insecure
Worship, control, validation
Pathological narcissism; fear of irrelevance
The cult provides a mirror reflecting their greatness
High (but fragile)
2 The True Believers
Devoted followers; emotionally invested
Meaning, identity, belonging, certainty
Anxiety relief; dependency, fear, anger, hatred
The cult gives them purpose and safety
High (when organized)
3 The Power Seekers
Elites who know the leader is flawed but use them
Access to power, wealth, protection
Cynicism and ambition
The cult is a tool for personal gain
Very High — They often run things
4 The Users / The Audience
Those who feed the cult indirectly: voters, viewers, consumers
Entertainment, alignment, tribe identity
Social conformity; curiosity
The cult is spectacle and identity affirmation
Variable — They enable survival
The leader doesn’t rule alone. The cult cannot survive without clever collaborators, the sycophants (# 3):
Translate delusions into policy
Shield the leader from consequences
Craft enemies for him to hate
Exploit believers
Script the narrative
Enforce loyalty tests
Manage purges
Inherit the machinery when the cult crumbles
Often are more intelligent and far more dangerous than the leader is.
The narcissistic leader is replaceable. The movement’s structure isn’t. When the figurehead falls: The sycophants retain the networks, the militias, the donors, the propaganda machine. They select the next leader.
When history asks: “How did one deranged man nearly destroy a nation?” The answer is: “He didn’t do it alone.”
Nearly all cults eventually collapse or split up. This is how these 4 groups behave during an authoritarian collapse
Behavior of the 4 Groups During Authoritarian Collapse
Group
What Triggers Their Shift
How They React
What They Say
Final Role
1️⃣ The Leader (Narcissist, Psychopath Center)
Loss of power, public humiliation, coup or death, legal accountability
Denial–>rage–>paranoia–> self-victimization. Purges allies, demands more loyalty, escalates lies.
“I am the real victim!” “They’re all traitors!” “Only I can solve this!”
Retreats into fantasy; may flee, radicalize, or self-destruct
Loss of entertainment value or stigma of association
Quiet disengagement. Retroactively claim they “always” saw through it. Shift attention to the next spectacle.
“I just watched for the drama.” “Don’t blame me.”
Grant social permission to move on — but leave the door open for the next demagogue
As you read about Trump’s followers and their Common Features, you will see why facts and logical arguments do not influence them. They were not persuaded by logic but rather by their own psychological needs.
People do not leave a cult when they see the truth. They leave when the cost of believing outweighs the comfort it provides.
Trump gives his followers what they believe they need, so to sway them requires replacement. They will not willingly go into the “void” of a world without Trump.
MAGAs will regretfully leave the cult for these reasons:
Betrayal by the Leader: The leader violates the follower’s core expectations: Breaking the cult’s own rules, corruption / self-enrichment, abandoning followers during a crisis
Direct Personal Harm to the Member: Financial ruin, Legal trouble, Loss of family, Emotional or physical abuse
Witnessing Harm to Innocents: Especially to children or loyal fellow members.
Repeated Contradictions: Failed predictions, Broken promises, Internal inconsistencies, Constant shifting of the narrative
Loss of Community Reinforcement: Friends leave, Media support shifts, Authority figures break ranks
A Trusted Messenger From the Outside: A friend or loved one expresses care, not superiority, concern not facts or pity.
A Soft Landing: A place to go — socially, emotionally, practically.
Deprogramming fails when leaving means isolation or loss of identity and support.
MAGAs do not support Trump because of logic. They support him because he fills a need or a void in their lives.
The following article appeared in the June 7 edition of THIS WEEK Magazine:
A riptide of economic ignoranceAmericans can’t possibly be this ignorant about the economy, can they? Asked Catherine Rampbell of the Washington Post.
According to a recent Harris-Guardian poll most Americans (55%) think that the country is currently in a recession.
The poll “also found that roughly half (49%) of Americans believe the unemployment rate is a day 50-year high“ and that the stock market has been down since the beginning of the year.
On all three issues, the truth is almost completely the opposite.The economy isn’t shrinking: “by virtually every benchmark, we’re exceeding grow expectations“ and outperforming most other advanced economies.
Unemployment hasn’t been this low for this long since the Nixon administration and the S&P 500 is up more than 10% is year.
Why are the bad “vibes“ still here? Commentators are quick to “blame the media for the public’s economic illiteracy, “and I agree that the journalist “generally give more play to bad economic numbers than good ones,“ but if the media has a bad news, bias is because our audiences do, too.
“People are more likely to click, watch, listen to, and share content that induces outrage“ – a bias for negative news amplified by social media.
The most useful thing you can do to help the general public grow more informed is to reward good news with your attention.
The conclusion is partly correct. People do pay more attention to negative news. The old, “If it bleeds, it leads” expression has been a mainstay of newsrooms for eons.
But there is more to it. Who are the people most likely to believe we’re in a recession, unemployment is up, and the stock market is down? The same people also believe:
the election was stolen
January 6 was not an insurrection; it was a normal tourist day
Obama is not a citizen
vaccinations cause disease and death
vaccines implant microchips
Trump helped create vaccines
Biden orchestrated NY case against Trump
Trump is innocent of all lawsuits
COVID was a Chinese hoax, then a Chinese plot
Wearing a COVID mask is unpatriotic
Hillary Clinton runs a sex-trafficking ring in the basement of a fast-food restaurant
global warming is a Chinese hoax
FBI was ordered to kill Trump
Biden/Ukraine/Shokin/ Burisma false scandal
the deep state and the New World order are threats to America
QAnon postings
Population control via secret methods — Agenda 21 death map
The claims of Alex Jones, David Icke,Jim Marrs, Judy Mikovits, Jerome Corsi, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, Tucker Carlson
The honesty and impartiality claims of Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Sam Alito.
Every judge in Trump’s trials is dishonest and takes orders from Biden to weaponize the law (while Trump himself has claimed a long list of people who should be investigated, convicted, jailed, or worse.)
These are just a few of the crazy ideas believed by the conservatives in America, particularly the MAGA branch.
Why is the right wing susceptible to so many obvious lies? They follow a leader like this one.
1. They’re narcissistic Cult leaders believe they’re special and are on a special mission to lead humanity to the light. They have fantasies of unlimited success and power. They’re constantly seeking the admiration of others and enjoy being the center of attention.
2. They’re charismatic Charisma is the ability to draw people to you by your charms and personality. Cult leaders tend to be highly charismatic. They’re masters at expressing their feelings and making their followers relate to them. Their social skills are above par.
3. They’re dominant As discussed earlier, projecting dominance is key to becoming a cult leader. Nobody wants to follow a submissive leader. A big part of dominance is putting down other dominant figuresof society so you can look better than them.
This is why politicians, who share a lot of traits with cult leaders, demonize, belittle, and defame their competitors.
4. They demand obedience Projecting dominance helps cult leaders create a power imbalance between them and their followers. They’re high status, and their followers are of low status. If the followers obey and do as they’re told, they can raise their status too. They can be in a better place too.
In this way, cult leaders prey upon the low self-esteem of their followers.
5. They claim to have supernatural powers Cult leaders do this to highlight the power imbalance. “I’m special. You’re not special.” Cult leaders may claim magical powers like talking to aliens, healing, or telepathy.
(Or having special influence over dictators like Putin and Kim.)
6. They’re arrogant and boastful Again, to remind their followers that they’re above them and to reinforce their high status.
7. They’re sociopaths/psychopaths (See: “A psychopath slipped into the White House . . .“) Lack of empathy is the hallmark of sociopathy/psychopathy. These tendencies make it easier for cult leaders to harm their followers without remorse.
8. They’re delusional Some cult leaders may suffer from mental illnesses like schizophrenia or temporal lobe epilepsy. These mental health conditions can induce psychosis or hallucinations. So, when they say they can talk to aliens, they may genuinely believe they do.
What’s interesting about this is that they can pull other people into their psychosis. As a result, the followers, driven by the conviction of their beliefs, may also see things that aren’t there. This condition is called shared psychotic disorder.
9. They’re persuasive Cult leaders are excellent marketers. They have to be, or they won’t be able to gain followers and raise their status. They know what makes people tick. They know how to cater to the basic needs of their followers.
10. They’re authoritative and controlling Cult leaders tend to control every little aspect of their followers’ lives. What to wear, what to eat, what to say, what not to say to keep the followers in line and reinforce their low status and power.
Some cult leaders also use fear and blackmail to control and retain followers.
Jim Jones, a cult leader responsible for 900 deaths, forced his followers to sign fake confession documents of criminal acts to blackmail them and deter them from leaving.
11. They’re exploitative The goal of all that authoritativeness and control is exploitation. Cult leaders make their followers submissive and weak to exploit them easily. Intelligent cult leaders exploit their followers that the followers don’t see as exploitation.
For instance, a cult leader may demand sexual access to female followers, making a ridiculous claim such as “This will purify our souls” or “It will bring us to a higher plane of existence”.
12. They’re underdogs Who is desperate to boost their status in society? Of course, low-status people. This is why cult leaders are often underdogs. They are rejects who failed multiple attempts to raise their status and are now resorting to desperate and unethical measures.
Who can relate to an underdog? Of course, other underdogs. Other low-status people. This is a big reason why cult leaders attract so many followers.
Cult leaders and followers band together to ‘overthrow the system’.For this to happen, the cult leader must act like an underdog so his followers can relate to him, but he must project dominance at the same time. An unusual mixture of being low status but projecting high status.
13. They’re intolerant of criticism Cult leaders can become enraged when they’re criticized. To them, criticism is a threat to their high status. That’s why they resort to extreme measures to prevent any criticism. Those who criticize are severely punished, humiliated, or even eliminated.
14. They’re visionaries Cult leaders infuse their followers with inspiration and hope for a better future (high status). They claim to take their followers to a better place, blissful and better off than non-followers.
Familial isolation: Relationships outside the cult are minimized.
Obsession with the leader, intense focus on the leader
SUMMARY
To be a right-winger — a Republican today — requires one to be a Trump follower. There are no current Republicans who will admit to opposing Trump, for any such are banished from the Republican party (See: Liz Cheney)
Thus, the entire GOP has taken on the characteristics of Trump: Psychopathic, dishonest, and illogical. They have become cult followers, who subscribe to the most ridiculous conspiracy theories, beliefs that normal people would laugh at, but are ardently accepted by the right wing.
Before World War II, and during its early stages, the German people adopted Adolf Hitler as their cult leader. His claims were similar to, and no less ridiculous, than Donald Trump’s. His followers were no less devoted and hypnotized.
They claim devotion to America, espouse patriotism, and wave the American flag. Simultaneously, Trump says soldiers are “suckers,” his followers attack Congress, and defend monuments to the ultimate unpatriotic act in American history: The rebellion by the southern states.
Today, sanity has returned to Germany. There are no statues of Hitler in Germany, and very few Germans will admit that they and their families worshipped that psychopath.
Eventually, sanity will happen here, too. One only can pray it won’t be too late.
There is a penalty for ignorance, and our fragile democracy is paying for it.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell;MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell
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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.
People may ask, “Why is Donald Trump worshipped by so many people, given all his terrible traits?
Every time he is indicted for a crime, his followers seem to love him more. Why is that?
The answer is right in front of our noses.
First, the source of their bewilderment is the man himself. He is a psychopath — or, more correctly, a person with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).
And other scandals, any one of which would have derailed the political fortunes of most candidates.
Trump has no morals, no conscience, no feelings of guilt, and no care for anyone but himself — the perfect psychopath.
Psychopaths are difficult for ordinary people to understand. They say and do things at which an intelligent person only can shake his head in wonderment, not believing someone could be so alien.
Why, then, are so many enraptured with him? Why does he draw crowds to his speeches, the size of which he falsely but routinely inflates? The answer: He appeals to three groups of people
The rich and powerful who benefit from the laws he passed as President
The people who wish to emulate the rich, notably the men who admire Trump’s overbearing misogyny.
The bigots and haters, the largest group.
Contrary to our preferred self-portrait, America (and indeed most nations) long has been home to bigots and haters.
The Jews and blacks have been the scapegoats for all that is wrong at any given time. There have been periods when the Irish were demonized, the Italians, the Japanese, the Chinese, et al.
Trump recognized that the two most potent and lasting human emotions are hatred and fear, each being a function of the other.
Hatred comes from fear. Fear comes from hatred. Trump stokes both.
He feeds the fear and hatred of immigrants and Latins in particular, all people of color, gays, Muslims, Chinese, Hillary Clinton, the FBI, the “deep state” (whoever that may be), non-Christians, the media (except the pro-Trump media).
In short, Trump appeals to weak-minded bigots who believe he will protect them from the people they fear and despise. And Trump has made the entire spineless Republican Party complicit in his fear/hate agenda.
Today’s anti-“woke” efforts by such hate-mongers as Ron DeSantis and Tucker Carlson constitute efforts to instill fear in the minds of the uneducated or bigoted that, in some never explained way, gay people will convert your children into being gay — but Trump, DeSantis, et al. will protect you.
Similarly, Trump instills fear of Mexican “rapists,” Muslim “terrorists,” and the undefined “deep state” that helped “steal” the election.
He tells his followers the Chinese, blacks, and women take jobs and college spots from white men, and they “unfairly” receive benefits from the government.
By preying on the hatred and ignorance of the bigoted parts of the middle and lower classes, Trump builds a compliant following whose fears keep them loyal despite any wrong Trump commits.
Those fears also demand that they carry guns everywhere to protect themselves from blacks they despise, which is why the Republican party refuses to consider even the most minor, benign gun control laws.
It also is why the right-wing Supreme Court incorrectly omits the first 13 words of the 2nd Amendment as having no meaning whatsoever.
(Meanwhile, the conservative justices who portray themselves as originalists discount that the framers originally thought “arms” were muzzle-loaded muskets and flintlock pistols. If those original weapons still were the weapons of choice, we would have virtually no mass killings.)
Trump’s border wall entreaty is the pitch-perfect result of his warnings about menacing hordes of Mexican rapists and criminals invading our white land.
Three groups — the rich, admirers of the rich, and the ignorant, fearful bigots — form Trump’s base. It is a base not just immune to reason, but rejecting anyfacts that do not support what their savior tells them.
That concrete mindset is why ridiculous conspiracy theories emanating from such as QAnon, Tucker Carlson, the rest of the Fox News gang, Breitbart, Alex Jones, Glen Beck, along with the Holocaust deniers, the anti-vaxers, and others of that ilk can find welcome in Trump’s party.
That third group, the ignorant, fearful, hate-mongering bigots, comprise much of the uber-religious who follow the dogma of their religion, no matter how unfactual, unscientific, and unbelievable it may be.
In every sense, they are cult followers who cannot bring themselves to resist the siren song of the dictator. They are the fanatics, the true believers in Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Jim Jones, Luc Jouret, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh — and Donald Trump.
Nothing can change their minds. They react to any counter-evidence, not just with disbelief but with fury.
Go on any Trumpist website and mention any fact unfavorable to Trump, and you will be met with a vitriol usually reserved for the most despicable among us.
Yes, Trump indeed can shoot someone on 5th Ave. and not lose any followers. He was right about that.
We only can be thankful that Donald Trump is one of the less intelligent cult leaders, so he repeatedly talks his way into criminal prosecutions that may dull his image among those not wholly hypnotized.
Finally, in the unlikely event you are a Trump follower and have read this far in the article, which are you, a rich or admirer of the rich, or a hating, fearing bigot?
Why is the right wing susceptible to so many obvious lies? They follow a leader like this one.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 