Anthony Scaramucci said that the Trump administration is like a cult and Trump is mass suicide cuit leader Jim Jones.
The Mooch tweeted:
It’s like a hostage crisis inside the @WhiteHouse and the hostages have Stockholm Syndrome. @realDonaldTrump as rev Jim Jones. When will it break?
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) August 23, 2019
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In answer to Scaramucci’s question, it won’t break. Trump is the symptom, not the disease. The cult-like behavior in the far-right fringes of the Republican Party has been around for decades. There is the Clinton conspiracy cult, which has enjoyed a revival under Trump, that dates back to the 1990s. It is possible to go back as far as the 1960s and see this behavior in the Birchers. Far-right extremism has always been a part of the Republican Party.
What’s different under Trump is that the non-extremists were chased out of the party beginning with the “tea party” movement during the Obama years. The Republican Party became more radicalized under Obama. Moderate Republicans and fiscal conservatives underestimated the level of radicalization, which led to the rise of Trump.
The Trump presidency is a cult. The goal of the majority of the country should be the removal of the cult from power. Republicans are going to have to figure out how to get their party back on their own, but if history is any guide, an intense civil war inside the party will unfold to fill the vacuum left by Trump if he loses in 2020.
The White House is a cult, and whether they realize it or not, the only way out is ruin and self-destruction.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
