The Trump movement is historically unique. While Donald Trump’s tens of millions of supporters share hatreds, passions, and paranoias that have long been part of American politics, it is Trump – himself – not his party or his policies – that is the response to their fears and resentments. This is a stronger bond between leader and followers than anything seen before in U.S. politics. His evangelical supporters see him as sent by God.
Because Trump is so different, the U.S. political system has struggled to understand and contain him. Many of Trump’s supporters have economic and material concerns as their lives have not turned out as they had hoped. But their bond with Trump has little to do with economic or other material concerns. They remain loyal to Trump even though he did nothing during his first term in the White House to improve their lives materially.
Trump’s base believes the U.S. government and society have been captured by socialists, minority groups, and sexual deviants. They see the Republican Party establishment as corrupt and weak, unable to challenge the reigning liberal hegemony. They view Trump as strong and defiant, willing to take on the establishment, Democrats, liberal media, antifa, the Squad, Big Tech, and Mitch McConnell Republicans. His charismatic leadership has given millions of Americans a feeling of purpose and empowerment, a new sense of identity. They ignore Trump’s narcissism, ignorance, and ineptness. They admire his unapologetic, militant selfishness. Trump speaks without embarrassment on behalf of an aggrieved segment of Americans who feel they have been ignored and mistreated, given the short end of the American stick, for too long. And that’s all he needs to do to retain their loyalty.
By no traditional political measure has Trump ever delivered anything meaningful to his constituents. What he does deliver is himself. His egomania is part of his appeal. Trump’s followers see their own victimization in his claims that he is victimized by the media and elites. Attacks on Trump by the media and elites only strengthen his bond with his followers. Their loyalty to Trump is so strong that they’re willing to risk death to demonstrate their solidarity with him. When Trump’s enemies cited his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic to discredit him, his followers’ answer was to reject covid-19. To this day – after the deaths of more than 700,000 Americans – they continue to dismiss covid-19 as a hoax, refuse to wear masks, and refuse to be vaccinated. We house sat for an evangelical couple who told us: “We truly believe that covid-19 is a hoax and part of a Chinese plot to takeover America.”
Because the Trump movement is less about policies than about Trump himself, it has undermined the normal role of political parties in absorbing new political and ideological movements into the mainstream. (The progressive movement of Bernie Sanders, accepted now by mainstream Democrats, is a traditional example of this.) But a movement built around a cult of personality – like the Trump cult – cannot be absorbed into an established political party, and cannot be carried forward by other leaders of that party.
When a sitting president loses a re-election battle and leaves office, there is always – until Trump – a struggle among others to claim the party’s mantle. That hasn’t happened with Trump. He is still the party leader. No Republican has been able to challenge Trump’s grip on Republican voters. The party is still all about Trump.
And thus it will remain. Trump will be the Republican Party’s nominee in 2024, 2028, 2032, and on and on. There is no one – not Ted Cruz, not Josh Hawley, not Tucker Carlson, not Ron DeSantis – who will be able to pick up Trump’s mantle and claim the loyalty of Republican Party voters as Trump has. That voter devotion belongs to Trump and will never transfer to another politician.
