When the Mirror Cracks: The Most Dangerous Moment
Like his historical predecessors, Donald Trump has entered a death spiral. The more he loses power, the more he demands it.
The Trump regime, its propagandists, and followers mirror Donald Trump as their modus operandi. They don’t behave independently, they act in unison—like starlings, or salmon.
Monkeys See. Monkeys Do.
Mirroring others is one of the most common human behaviors. It’s how we learn, and often how we communicate to others. Whether it’s a newborn’s first smile back to a parent, or a crowd clapping along with a band in unison, mirroring is a way of establishing, and communicating connection. Feeling something together is a core feature of humanity.
This kind of imitation is also called mimesis, which comes from the same etymology as mime.
In authoritarian groups aka cults, however, mimesis is not a natural outcome of a member’s own thoughts and feelings. It becomes an autonomic, instant reaction to anything modeled by the leader. The entire purpose of the psychological tactics of totalitarians like Donald Trump is submerging the independent evaluations of his servants—to be replaced by his own judgements and feelings.
Monkeys see. Monkeys do.
Omar v. MAGA
As a timely example, Tuesday night, one of Trump’s supporters confronted and attacked Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with some kind of substance at a town hall in Minneapolis—after Trump and his regime systematically dehumanized and demonized her for months.
I note that Rep. Omar refused to allow this incident to stop her meeting, and appeared to be perfectly capable of defending herself. The man is in custody and being charged.
The man who attacked her is an ardent MAGA and Trump supporter who has a long history of posting images like this one. He also owns several firearms.
Nevertheless, just after the event, Trump not only showed no concern for the congresswoman, he accused Rep. Omar of staging the attack on herself.
Trump’s ability to say, and do, more and more outrageous things has always been his best defense mechanism. But he’s running out of ideas, and the cognitive capacity to keep track of them.
Mirror Cracks
Despite Trump’s feeble attempt to smooth over the catastrophic handling of the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the White House remains in turmoil over it. DHS head Kristi Noem blamed Trump and Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s entire immigration operation, who in turn blamed demoted CBP Commander Greg Bovino.
Despite some rhetoric about “deescalation” in Minnesota, the reality on the ground is that nothing significant has changed. There are still thousands of untrained, violent paramilitary units hunting brown people all over Minnesota.
But the cracks in Trump’s magic mirror—his ability to control the thoughts and emotions of his minions and followers, simply by modeling the behavior he wants—are widening and deepening. And the external pressures increase every time he threatens to invade another country, or his regime murders someone and covers it up.
2+2=100, Actually
Trump is now asking his followers and accomplices to not just lie for him, but to lie and then turn around and lie in a different direction when he gets caught. When the regime defamed Alex Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin,” Trump’s followers were happy to go along with it. But when Trump had to switch scapegoats and blame the Second Amendment, he stepped on a huge rake.
This is an extreme version of a loyalty test that doesn’t give even the appearance of independent thought to the subject.
Cult leader: 2+2=5!
Followers: OK. 2+2=5!
Cult leader: 2+2=100, actually!
Followers: Wait a second…
This process of a cult leader demanding increasingly distorted versions of reality, resulting in doubts among his followers, which in turn spurs more demands, can create a deadly vicious cycle.
Unfortunately, a list of examples of this process are a list of the most disastrous cults and movements in modern history. Each of these represents an authoritarian group imploding into the paranoia of its leaders as they personally collapse under external pressure and increasing doubts among their followers:
Peoples Temple / Jonestown (1978)
Branch Davidians / Waco (1993)
Heaven’s Gate (1997)
Order of the Solar Temple (1994–97)
Aum Shinrikyo (1995)
Manson Family (1969)
The Order (U.S. white-power cultic cell, 1983–84)
ISIS territorial collapse (2016–19)
Scientology post-Hubbard (1980s-)
NXIVM exposure/indictments (2017–19)
Late-stage Nazi Germany (1944–45)
Stalin’s purges (1938-39)
Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1960s-70s)
This kind of scenario has never ended well. And it won’t in America, I’m afraid.
You Can Never Leave
The psychological profile of Trump and his minions both inside and outside the government fit right into this historical continuum. Trump is a sadistic malignant narcissist, which describes many of his cult-leader predecessors as well. He has, as they all do by nature, created a situation where he feels the need to continuously prove his dominance and enforce his personal reality—or lose his power.
The most dangerous moment for any abusive relationship, whether one-on-one, or one-to-millions, comes when the victims want to leave. It’s why all cult leaders try to isolate their victims from external information and contact. Everything that’s not about the leader is a threat.
Trump’s paranoia at losing his power will not lead to a sudden rash of moderation. It will not lead to less violence. It will not lead to a lowering of tensions.
For example, Kash Patel (who sued me for saying he tried to help Trump steal the 2020 election) just executed a search warrant on the election office in Fulton County, Georgia, seeking records from the 2020 election. This is the office where Trump wanted to “find” 11,780 votes.
This is a narcissist’s reaction, a symptom of Trump’s terror of losing popularity, status and respect. The more he senses his grip is weakening, the more pressure he will put on the world to bend to his personal, paranoid reality, regardless of the costs—even to himself.
Vicious Cycle
Trump wants to remake America to be his personal Jonestown, an isolated compound separate from any external accountability or internal dissent—a giant island only existing to serve himself. Destroying our ability to reality test is the only way he can maintain his own delusion.
But America is not hundreds of people lured to a far away colony like the People’s Temple. It is not a weakened nation with a history of subjugation, like Weimar Germany. It is not a UFO cult determined to find an escape, like Heaven’s Gate.
It is hundreds of millions of freedom-loving people who aren’t going anywhere and will never bend to Trump’s reality. He knows we’re going to leave him, eventually.
The most dangerous moment has arrived. It’s about time.
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Trump could not be more detrimental to America, its institutions, its allegiances… its history if HE TRIED. Which, in light of his bromance with Putin makes me wonder “Is he TRYING to sabotage the republic?” The book “Kompromat” by Craig Unger, makes just such an argument, featuring a decades long recruitment of, ahem, POTUS, by Soviet operative Yuri Schvets. The book is worth a glance. I found a copy at my local library.
Wow. An instant classic and the anthem of our era. So glad this song that will stand the test of time honors Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by name.