The Trump Cult of Personality and Why the Lies Matter

From Teri Kanefield:

Michael Cohen, in his riveting testimony Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight, illustrated how Trump’s Cult of Leadership operates. 

The classic definition of a leadership cult comes from Robert O. Paxton. 

1/ In a leadership cult the followers look for a strong authority (always male) culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s historical destiny. This is what Trump was getting at when he said, “I alone can fix it” Trump's Claim: ‘I Alone Can Fix It’ Breaking with two centuries of political tradition, Donald Trump didn’t ask Americans to place their trust in each other or in God, but rather, in Trump. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-rnc-speech-alone-fix-it/492557/ 

2/ Lies are an integral part of a leadership cult. The leader’s utterances don’t have to be factually true—as long as they advance the group’s agenda. The agenda always includes consolidating power. Truth is “whatever permits” the Leader to dominate others. 

3/ On Wed., Cohen explained how Trump signals to his supporters what lie they are supposed to tell. “Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress,” Cohen said. “That’s not how he operates.” How does he operate? Cohen offered an example. . . 

4/ During the campaign, while Cohen was negotiating with Russia on Trump’s behalf (to build Trump Tower Moscow), Trump often asked how the negotiations were going. Other times Trump looked Cohen in the eye and say, “there’s no business in Russia.” Afterward. . . 

5/ . . .Trump went out and told the same lie to the American people. Cohen thus understood that “there’s no business in Russia” was the lie he was supposed to tell.” McCabe tells a similar story. After Trump fired Comey, he summoned McCabe to a meeting. Transcript: Ex-FBI Deputy Recalls 25th Amendment Discussions Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said the Deputy Attorney General broached the 25th Amendment as a way to oust President Trump http://time.com/5531604/andrew-mccabe-60-minutes-interview-transcript/ 

6/ Trump offered a “gleeful” description of what happened with the firing of Comey. McCabe knew this wasn’t true. He also knew Trump expected him to “adopt” this falsehood. McCabe refused. He said, “No sir. That’s not true . . . ” He knew that he’d “given him the wrong answer.” 

7/ McCabe knew he would lose his job because of his unwillingness to tell the lie that Trump wanted him to tell. Trump not only made sure McCabe was fired, he also made sure McCabe—after 21 years of service—would not receive his pension. 

8/ @PreetBharara tells a similar story. was startled shortly after Trump took office when Trump personally reached out to him. It was odd,” Bharara said, “because as a general matter, Presidents don’t speak directly to United States attorneys. . . " Preet Bharara on why Donald Trump fired him Fired US attorney Preet Bharara believes that if he had stayed President Donald Trump would have asked him "to do something inappropriate." https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/politics/preet-bharara-podcast-trump-firing/index.html 

9/ . . . "You know the number of times President Obama called me? Zero,” @PreetBharara said. The calls were particularly awkward because Mr. Bharara was prosecuting Russian money laundering and Russian mob crimes in Trump’s own neighborhood of Manhattan. Preet Bharara on why Donald Trump fired him Fired US attorney Preet Bharara believes that if he had stayed President Donald Trump would have asked him "to do something inappropriate." https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/politics/preet-bharara-podcast-trump-firing/index.html 

10/ Bharara accept a few of Trump’s phone calls. Trump just called to shoot the breeze. Bharara suspected nobody knew the president was calling him. He felt distinctly uncomfortable, so the next time the president called, he refused the call. He was fired twenty hours later. 

11/ McCabe and Bharara were clear warnings to what happens to those who ignore the leader’s signals. There are too many other examples to count, like this one: Asked Flynn to shut it down w/o verbally asking him to shut it down, like Cohen described. Shutting down any investigations must have seemed entirely doable. In fact, he acted as if he’d easily shut down the investigations—which of course means getting away with everything. Take his Feb. 2017 meeting with Comey.https://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-asked-comey-to-shut-down-1494971048-htmlstory.html …  “I hope you can let this go,” the president told Comey, according to Comey’s memo. 

12/ Cohen explained how he was drawn into the Leadership Cult: “Being around Mr. Trump was intoxicating. When you were in his presence, you felt like you were involved in something greater than yourself — that you were somehow changing the world." 

13/ Cohen ended up “touting the Trump narrative for over a decade.” Cohen's job—and the job of everyone else in Trump’s orbit—was to stay on message and “protect” Trump. They did their jobs willingly and even eagerly. 

14/ A chilling moment in Cohen’s testimony on Wed. was when Cohen responded to insults by Congressional Republicans by saying: “I am responsible for your silliness because I did the same things that you are doing now. I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years.”   

15/ Cohen then issued a warning: “People who follow Mr. Trump blindly will suffer the same consequences I’m suffering.” Michael Cohen on President Trump: 'He Is a Racist. He Is a Con Man. He Is a Cheat.' Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about various investigations related to the 2016… https://www.c-span.org/video/?458125-1/michael-cohen-president-trump-he-racist-con-man-cheat The left-leaning TwitterVerse assumes that Trump has blackmail material on Graham. 

16/ The Graham-must-be-compromised theory arises because it’s hard to imagine how else Graham could have done such an abrupt about-face. But left-leaning people are not, by nature, susceptible to a leadership cult. Others are.