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The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Why Donald Trump is truly a cult leader

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics, Government

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trump’s followers are often described as cult-like. But how much does the former president actually act like a cult leader? Does he employ the same coercive control tactics utilised by infamous infamous figureheads of the past – like Jim Jones and Sun Myung Moon? The Cult of Trump author and leading mind control expert Steven Hassan tells Rafael Behr how perceiving Trump as a cult leader might let us better understand the current political climate.  • “People don’t care that Trump has ninety-one criminal charges against him, that he has over 40,000 documented lies. They refuse to believe he lost the election. Their minds have been hacked.” – Steven Hassan • “There are a lot of different cults in the cult of trump.” – Steven Hassan We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit. www.patreon.com/bunkercast       Written and presented by Rafael Behr. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved

0:05.5

photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.

0:11.8

Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?

0:13.0

I loved going to college.

0:14.0

It's good you can retrain and do something.

0:16.0

Yeah, yeah.

0:17.0

Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.

0:22.0

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0:28.0

Search Phoenix Group living longer.

0:30.0

Pets brings so much joy.

0:32.0

From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa.

0:37.0

So give a little love back with Dental Life from Purina, a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so look

0:55.5

after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello, welcome to the bunker. I'm Raphael Bear. It seems unbelievable that Donald Trump could return to the White House.

1:15.1

Or it's hard to believe if you think it matters that the former president is facing dozens of

1:19.6

criminal charges and incited violent insurrection to overturn the result of the last election.

1:25.4

Surely that's a deal breaker for any voter who looks at the evidence.

1:28.9

But there's the problem. An alarming number of Americans don't believe the evidence and see Trump not as a

1:34.4

minister democracy but it's their salvation. The devotion is complete, almost

1:39.7

religious. There have been lots of explanations for this. Populism has deep roots in US culture and history.

1:46.2

The Trump movement is fueled by economic insecurity and social polarisation and while those

1:51.6

analyses can help account for the scale of

1:53.9

Trump's fan base they somehow don't quite capture the sheer fanaticism of it.

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