The following article represents the view of the Next Century Foundation´s Senior Research Officer on Terrorism and Extremism. It does not neccessarilly represent the view of the trustees, board memebrs and members of the Next Century Foundation.
In this article, NCF Senior Research Officer on Terrorism and Extremism Cristina De Leo explores the “Trump phenomenon” through the lens of cultic studies. The author argues that Trump’s ideology, mindset, and leadership display many apocalyptic, cult-like traits — most notably a vision aimed at dismantling and radically reshaping American society with a utopian vision. The article further contends that Trump faces significant challenges in imposing his worldview within a pluralistic society where many have not been socialized into his ideology, but that the loyalty of his core followers is likely to persist even as public opinion grows increasingly resistant to his vision.
Few presidencies in recent history have provoked as much controversy, confusion and emotional responses as that of Donald Trump. His presidency is often described as unpredictable, disruptive, chaotic, irrational and delusional. The difficulty in making sense of the American President’s policies lies in the fact that the “Trump phenomenon” cannot be reduced to merely a political entity. Rather, it is more easily understood when it is also viewed as an apocalyptic, cult-like movement.
The choice of the term “cult-like”, as opposed to “cult”, is not accidental here. While an increasing number of commentators and authors have labelled Trump a “cult leader” and “Trumpism” a cult, I would argue that such outright classifications have analytical limitations. When observing phenomena that bear resemblance to one another, there is a natural temptation to group them together under a single category. But when addressing the complexity of the social world with broad strokes, there is always a risk of eliminating nuances and diluting definitions to the point where they lose their analytical value. In the case of Trump, there are several aspects that make him different from groups that we may more readily define as cults. For example, Trump does not directly preside over a clear-cut, tightly knit, insular community cut-off from the outside world. Nor is he as rigid in his beliefs as cults tend to be, having on many occasions adjusted his ideas based on changing circumstances. While cults do also shift their positions in response to societal pressures, they typically do so cautiously and gradually, and justify the changes in doctrine to their followers on ideological grounds, often through claims of new divine revelations. Trump, on the other hand, has many times shifted positions with remarkable speed and fluidity, often without ideological explanation or justification, in a manner that is more akin to a political opportunist than a cult leader.
Nonetheless, there is no need to reduce the Trump phenomenon to a “cult” in order to recognise its cult-like traits. There are indeed elements in Trump’s ideology, mindset and following that mirror those found in cults. As such, political and institutional explanations can only take us so far in understanding Trump. The prism of cultic studies adds an additional dimension to the Trump phenomenon, offering deeper insights into the logic and objectives that underpin the U.S. President’s policies, as well as the reasons why he is able to maintain a cult-like loyalty with his core base of followers, in cases where other political leaders pursuing similar actions would likely not.
Trump’s Description of American Society: A Diagnosis of Crisis
The ideological narrative surrounding Trump is one of the most distinctly cult-like features of his political movement and is crucial to understanding his political agenda. Ideological worldviews have two core features: they provide an description of the social world and a corresponding prescription for how it should be structured.
In describing existing social conditions, apocalyptic groups typically present a narrative of crisis conditions. Such ideologies typically claim that there was once an idealised past in which a particular group lived in harmony, peace, and righteousness – a golden age that was later disrupted by external evil forces, leading to a present marked by moral decay and oppression.
Of course, this diagnosis of the world will sound familiar to anyone acquainted with Trump’s rhetoric, and is at the heart of his “Make America Great Again” slogan. Indeed, Trump has frequently referred to the idea of a past, idyllic era in which a specific group of people lived in perfect harmony; Americans, he claims, once lived in a country that was filled with economic prosperity, strong moral values and respect from other nations.
Following the narrative found in apocalyptic cults, according to Trump, this utopian past was disrupted by corrupt, external forces. In cultic ideologies, external forces are typically framed in conspiratorial terms, depicted as part of a deliberate and coordinated effort to oppress the in-group. For example, the leader of the infamous apocalyptic Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyō taught his followers that demonic forces controlled the world’s governments, and that they, as the righteous group, were engaged in a spiritual resistance. These paranoid beliefs stem from the fact that cultic groups interpret human history as a struggle between good and evil. Within this binary framework, historical events are not driven by complexity or chance, but by a broader, cosmic battle between two opposing moral forces, where the in-group is under constant attack by malevolent out-groups.
In the same conspiratorial vein, Trump’s rhetoric suggests the existence of a hostile coalition of external forces actively working to oppress the American people: he has stated that Mexico is deliberately sending criminals and rapists into the US; that public schools are indoctrinating children with liberal, radical gender ideology; that a hidden “deep state” made up of a network of bureaucrats and elites manipulates institutions to silence and “beat up” defenceless Americans, and that foreign governments are “ripping off” American people through intentionally exploitative trade deals.
In the ideology of apocalyptic cults, the attack by evil oppressors has given rise to a world that is in complete moral and cultural decay. This notion of a society facing a complete breakdown is also clear in Trump’s narrative, which depicts America as being engulfed in a profound state of decline. He has stated that public schools are teaching children to “hate their country”, that urban centres are a “disaster” where you get “shot walking in the store” that inner cities are filled with “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation” and festered in crime, gangs and drugs. On the whole, these ideas reflect a cult-like diagnosis of society, which is portrayed as being in a profound state of crisis that demands urgent transformation.
Trump’s Prescription: Dismantling America to Remake It
According to the ideology of apocalyptic cults, the prescription for saving the world from its state of decay is to destroy it. In this ideological vision, a messianic, salvific figure rises to rescue the oppressed group and restore its utopian past through a final, apocalyptic battle in which the oppressors responsible for the group’s disempowerment and current state of decline are completely destroyed.
This notion of destroying the world to create a new one is a core tenet of the prescription made by the ideologies of apocalyptic cultic groups, who believe that mass-destruction is the only solution to bring about a better world. Sociologist Alessandro Orsini has labelled this worldview in cults as “radical catastrophism”. In part, this logic that only total destruction can give rise to a purified world is rooted in the binary and all-encompassing nature of cultic ideological worldviews: if evil forces are pervading the world and causing decay on all fronts, then wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch is the only logical solution.
This cult-like, categorical, “ends justify the means” mentality is also evident in Trump’s ideological prescription for American society, which conveys the notion that the only way to resolve the nation’s crisis is through a total cleansing of all its perceived enemies. Referring to the 2021 election as ‘the final battle’ – an expression loaded with apocalyptic imagery – he described the purging that would be required in order to redeem Americans:
In line with the prescription of apocalyptic cultic ideologies, Trump seeks to overturn the dominant social order, invoking a biblically inspired ideal in which, at the time of judgment, the first shall be last, and the last first. In his own words: “I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves.” In a similar vein, he has declared: “The Great Liberation of America Begins on November 5th, 2024—And the Forgotten Man and Woman Will Be Forgotten No Longer!”. According to Trump, his presidency is not merely a political endeavour but a religious, salvific mission. “This is not just a campaign, this is a quest to save our country”, he proclaimed during one of the 2024 campaign speeches. In this framing, Trump positions himself as the messianic figure destined to rescue the oppressed by overthrowing the corrupt establishment.
Given Trump’s apocalyptic ideology, we would expect his policies to take on a destructive and destabilizing character, aimed not at reforming the system, but at dismantling it. This indeed appears to be the case. Since taking office, Trump has overseen mass layoffs of federal workers, announced sweeping tariffs that upended decades of U.S. trade policy, attempted to eliminate government agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Education, carried out mass expulsion of immigrants and aggressively rolled back environmental protections. The sweeping nature of Trump’s governance has even led historians like Ruth Ben-Ghiat to describe his first weeks in office as resembling a coup, and to claim that Trump’s attempt to consolidate power has been carried out with such speed and ruthlessness that is unlike anything seen in modern times. Indeed, Trump’s radical and disruptive measures reflect a cult-like, apocalyptic impulse to completely purge the dominant social order.
Trump’s Utopian Vision
In the ideological prescription of apocalyptic cults, once evil forces have been defeated, the forces of good prevail, and the destroyed world is replaced by a perfect, utopian society. In a similar way, Trump seeks to reconstruct a purified American society from its ruins, to Make America Great Again and restore its mythic past glory. His utopian vision for American society was articulated well in one of his 2024 campaign speeches: “We will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. We will make America glorious again. We will make America great again”.
But utopian visions easily lend themselves to authoritarianism and totalitarianism, which are traits that several observers have identified in Trump’s leadership style and political agenda. Consider, for example, “Project 2025”, a policy blueprint developed by conservative think tanks aligned with Trump’s movement. In his analysis of the project, journalist for The Atlantic and author of book “The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America”, David A. Graham shows how the initiative seeks to radically restructure American society according to an ultra-conservative vision centred on a traditional family model characterised by married heterosexual couples, male breadwinners and female caregivers. The radical and sweeping nature of the project is, according to Graham, one of its most “shocking” features. This totalitarian-like tendency to impose conformity to a singular lifestyle stems from the binary worldview at the heart of cult-like ideologies, which divide the world into forces of absolute good and absolute evil. Within this framework, there are only two ways of living: the right path, embodied by the good, and the wrong path, embodied by the evil. As a result, cultic ideologies are based on the belief that there is one – and only one – correct way to live. Their vision of a perfect, utopian society thus becomes one in which everyone conforms to the “right” way of life.
Trump’s Struggle to Enforce his Vision: Can His World Endure?
One of Trump’s biggest challenges is imposing his worldview on a society where not everyone has been socialized into it. Ideologies in cults usually make little sense to outsiders because they tend to override empirical realities. This is because such ideologies are all-encompassing belief-systems, offering a total explanation of the social world, encompassing past, present, and future events. As a result, the belief-system is applied indiscriminately to interpret almost everything that happens. Because the real world is multifaceted and ambiguous, forcing all phenomena through a single ideological lens leads to an artificial and overly simplistic understanding of the world, to the construction of what can be described as a fictitious reality, a version of the world that only appears coherent when strictly viewed through the group’s binary, “us versus them” ideological lens. Followers who have been socialised into the group’s worldview readily accept the leadership’s interpretation of events, but outsiders will easily identify distortions and fabrications.
The resistance of outsiders to Trump’s alternate interpretation of reality is what complicates his endeavour to remake American society according to his apocalyptic ideology. Unlike fully-fledged cult leaders, Trump does not preside over a sealed-off community of followers who accept his worldview without question. As he does not operate within an insular environment, he must enforce his ideology whilst contending with a broader pluralistic landscape – one that includes critics, media outlets and a diverse public – that has not been socialised into his apocalyptic worldview. As a result, his narratives and policies face ongoing public criticism and resistance, complicating his efforts to maintain the ideological cohesion typical of insular cultic movements and impose his agenda on America.
Trump’s struggle is made evident in his recent tariff policies. In an effort to apply his apocalyptic narrative of an America under siege to empirical realities, Trump framed trade imbalances as evidence of a broader existential attack to the nation. He declared trade deficits as a “national emergency” that endangered American’s “security and way of life,” describing them as a “very great threat” to the country. In his narrative, foreign nations were not merely economic competitors, but hostile forces that had “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” the United States, “abusing” the country and “viciously attacking” its workers. In line with his apocalyptic prescription, Trump framed his implementation of reciprocal tariffs as part of his messianic-like solution to rescue American people. He declared the policy’s launch“ Liberation Day”, proclaiming that “April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again”.
Trump’s apocalyptic narrative did indeed resonate with his devoted followers. This can be seen in online public reactions to his tariff announcement. For instance, one user expressed gratitude for Trump’s salvific gesture, writing “Thank you for helping the little man. We are tired of being made fun of and taken advantage of by other countries”. Others made explicit biblical parallels with Trump’s actions, citing verses such as Psalm 150:3 “Praise him with the trumpet and with lute and harp” and declaring, “Mr. President Trumpet.”
But Trump’s version of reality made little sense to outsiders not socialised into his apocalyptic worldview, with media articles describing his understanding of economics and interpretation of history during his speech as “utterly deluded” and “flat-out nonsense” and economists labelling his tariff policies as “crazy, dumb”, absurd, and “totally silly”. Indeed, his ideological narrative was detached from any kind of evidence. Contrary to his portrayal of a victimised America, Trump inherited a strong economy. Just a month before the 2024 election, The Economist ran a cover story declaring the U.S. economy “the envy of the world” and described America as an “economic powerhouse”. Far from being under attack by the rest of the world, America was economically dominant. And far from Trump’s narrative of reclaiming America’s past glory by making it wealthy again, the tariffs have created massive uncertainty for businesses, consumers, and governments with economists predicting they will bring economic hardship for the country. Trump’s attempt to impose his cult-like, apocalyptic worldview on American society thus reveals a fundamental tension: mythmaking may work within the boundaries sealed-off cultic groups, but in an open, plural, society, it encounters friction.
As more people become aware of the gaps between Trump’s apocalyptic narrative and the real world, his ideological vision risks to collapse. Indeed, this dynamic already seems to be taking place, with recent surveys showing a decline in Trump’s approval.
But whilst outsiders may threaten Trump’s presidency, we should not underestimate the resilience of those who make up Trump’s loyal base. Members of cults tend to show a stable, disciplined loyalty to their leader even when their doctrines reveal themselves to be clearly false. The strong loyalty largely stems from the exclusive and intense attachment bonds that are created between members and their leaders. These attachment bonds resemble a child-parent dynamic; much like a child will believe whatever their parent says out of their deep emotional attachment, followers come to accept the leader’s words with little questioning. In other words, loyalty becomes less about what is being said and more about who is saying it. A notable example of this resistance to evidence in cults can be seen in the case of the apocalyptic group “Seekers”, whose leader predicted that the United States would be destroyed by a great flood and that her followers would be rescued by aliens. When the prophecy did not materialise on the predicted dates, a faithful core of believers did not abandon their beliefs; quite the opposite, they became even more committed.
In a similar way, I suspect Trump’s base of hardline supporters will largely remain loyal, even when clear discrepancies between his ideology and real-world outcomes are made evident. The depth of cult-like loyalty was perhaps best captured by Trump himself, when he once remarked that he could stand on New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot somebody” and still not lose voters.
This resilience of the cult-like following of Trump seems to be confirmed by recent polls, which revealed that whilst his approval rating has been dropping among his less dedicated voters, his base remains supportive, viewing any criticism of his policies as proof that he is delivering on his promises to disrupt the system. The question is whether Trump’s loyal base will be enough to sustain his political survival, as the gap between myth and reality continues to widen under public scrutiny, testing how far his worldview can stretch beyond the bounds of his most devoted disciples.
