The people supporting trump are not willing to face the facts. While reading Adam’s piece I thought of 3 people I wish would read this—people I love! But I know from experience they will.not.read.it. They choose to keep their belief systems by remaining ignorant. 😢
I have a mother and two adult daughters who are not affected, yet, so they believe everything is fine. They don’t talk to me because I tell them the truth trying to get them to stop drinking the Kool-aid.
i know someone who won't care. she knows she will be dead by 2032, and her attitude is that as long as it doesn't happen to her she doesn't care. nevermind that it will happen to her three daughters.
SOMEONE I AM CLOSE TO WORSHIPS TRUMP AND IS SIMPLY - UNWILLING - TO COUNTENACE ANY NEWS OR INFORMATION THAT IS CONTRARY TO HIM.
AND YET, I DO BELIEVE THE VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING, AND DO NOT LIKE IT.
ALSO,IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE TORRENT OF BAD NEWS FOR TRUMP, COUPLED WITH HIS ARROGANT, IDIOTIC STATEMENTS - "I LOVE THE INFLATION" - HAS TO TAKE A TOLL THAT WILL BE FELT IN THE MIDTERMS.
IF I WERE A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS PERSON IN A SWING STATE I WOULD BE LOOKING FOR A SMALL FARM TO BUY.
I don't believe there are any sane and decent tRump supporters. They are lured in by his essential cruelty and kept there by the constant drumbeats of fear spoken to them by State Television. They are plain and simply enculted!
I used to be reluctant to call this a cult, but the more and more I see I really think it is. It is so weird to have friends that have normal jobs (one with a defense contractor with a security clearance), will go the extra mile to be kind to my cat or help me with something for my house but spew the most vile messages against Dumocrats and subscribe to election fraud conspiracy theories.
I agree with your description entirely. I now use this as a moral compass: if a person supports Trump, then there is something evil about them, whether it be their racism, anger, homophobia, or something else, it means to me that I should be highly cautious around them and probably go the other direction. I didn’t use to think that way about the “old style” Republicans. They were not of my political beliefs, but they weren’t evil either. Those were the good old days.
The people supporting this lunatic are just as psychotic, vengeful, hateful, foolish, imbecilic, self-serving as this pseudo-authoritarian racist rapist.
"It's the price we have to pay for freedom" when he costs us money. When he spitefully cut off the water project in Colorado farm country not long ago, those farmers still loved him. Asked about it, one said, "Well, if he did it, I'm sure he had a reason." No matter the corruption and incompetence, He's still God.
I have a relative now saying we all need to suffer for our country. You know they are getting to the point where they can't even defend it anymore when they use suffer or "God works in mysterious ways" types of comments.
How did this guy ever reach this kind of adoration? You know your relative; can you give us some insight to who they are and how they think (these kind of supporters.) I’m serious by the way; I really would love to know what you think.
I have a hard time understanding but the best I can come up with is that Trump appeals to or fulfills some inner need and it is so powerful that the person overlooks or rationalizes the things they know are wrong Kind of like people in an unhealthy or abusive relationship and still keep sticking with it no matter how bad it gets
i couldn't agree more! i subscribe to a few other substacks that i feel are vitally important, but i had to pull back for my health's sake, and, therefore, adam's is the only substack i never miss.
Reading the last couple posts about the boos at the Knicks game and the inflation quip, I don't see how the current state of affairs can be framed as anything other than a failing, delusional narcissist being enabled by sycophantic handlers while he leads a fanatical cult. Regarding the handlers, let's go back and look at all the criticisms of people around Biden who hid his aging, and take a page out of that book for the people covering up Trump's obvious declines. Regarding the MAGA cult, it now seems foolish to apply reason or rationality to analyze/understand their duality and complicity. Instead, we should be viewing it through the lens of high-control groups who demand fealty to the leader, plain and simple. Boos = cheers? Okay! I will end inflation -> I love inflation? Sign me up! The lying is the point; it is how cult membership is defined.
Jayson - He had the perfect opportunity to blame the self inflicted inflation on Biden and it surprised me that he didn’t go to his fallback knee jerk ridiculous response. But his followers still try to blame the previous administration regardless of what the facts say. Maybe the bruising on his hands is because he refuses to use the autopen? So much hand signatures instead of handshakes? I’m sure the handlers will come up with something new to explain it all. While they use the autopen behind his back. Ending inflation and not starting new wars are not the only lies he told and it’s a shame that some people believed him.
OK, Adam. Question. When will something be done to remove this human being from office? How long does an administration wait, until we're all blown to bits, emotionally, physically, and spiritually? What does it take, for us to hear day after day after day this insanity, with no one taking the lead? What's wrong with this picture? Has the human race just plain given up? I haven't. People in this group haven't. What can we do?
Trump wasn't able to create this harm against ordinary Americans alone. The Republicans in all branches of government are equally responsible for this cruelty by supporting Trump in the past, present and I believe will continue to do so in the future.
Reaganomics is coming home to roost. That skewed philosophy that “entitlements “ like social security, making sure the poorest among us in the richest country in the world are fed, and healthcare is available to our elderly and poor are the problem. Tax cuts for the “job creators” and trickle down economics are celebrated . What we have now is a mutant, bloated, cartoonish version of this philosophy. The Republicans who followed nothing but their portfolio balance, rationalized that they are “fiscally conservative”, even while funding nothing wrong with gay marriage or reproductive freedom (and choosing to vote Republican because…you know…fiscal conservatism..) are a big problem. They didn’t pay attention, were assuaged by the nice things they owned…and blindly followed their party down a really dark path.
Laura - It always was the party that was against payments to the people who they thought didn’t deserve it and called it handouts. Yet, this is the same party that was perfectly fine with letting T collect our money through a back room deal and then hand it to insurrectionists.
No party is perfect but since at least Reagan the republicans scream about spending money if they aren’t in power and spend freely when they are. It seems to me that they leave nothing behind to make sure that if a democrat wins they don’t have anything left to implement the promises they made. Democrats have to spend their time trying to balance the budget and deal with the deficit. When they are voted out the cycle continues. And you are right because they base their wealth, and the current state of affairs, on the stock market while the rest of us don’t.
I started taking SS at 62. I would have waited until 70, but had a feeling that all the threats about cutting it by a third, etc would come to pass. Someone please tell Speaker Johnson that it's not an entitlement. We all have paid into it. Would have been so much better to have let us put it into an investment fund.
I totally agree with you! I wish these people would stop saying they are an entitlement! We’ve paid into that for the 50+ years we’ve worked. I hope one day karma comes to bite them all in the ass.
Cutting social security and Medicare will cause a crisis in this country. I for one live on social security and my insurance is Medicare with a supplement. I spent my entire working life paying these programs. They are angering a base of voters that will not stand for these cuts. We must vote every one of them out.
i've been 100% disabled since i was 40, and that's a long time ago. as a career federal employee i retired with 40% of my top three salaries. i had to pay a lot for health insurance. i was impoverished until i met and married my husband. medicare is still a lifeline for me, and my future now looks rather bleak because my pension combined with a reduced medicare and a reduced amount of what i receive from my husband's social security will send me backwards if my husband predeceases me. and yet i will always be so much better off than my contemporaries who have no federal pension to go with social security and medicare. THE ANSWER LIES IN RAISING THE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE DEDUCTIONS FOR THE MOST WELL OFF! republicans are allergic to that.
Just watching him, it's clear the man is insane. He lives in La-La Land. He wishes something to be true and "Presto" it is true. 15 minutes later he wishes the opposite to be true, and it's true too. He lies so effortlessly and with such conviction because in his demented mind he isn't lying.
It's not hard to believe that in a nation of 340 million people there is someone as nuts as Trump. What boggles the mind is that so many people will slavishly follow the ravings of a lunatic.
NJS - Pretty sure that’s why he and his people are continuing to buy up all the ways that we communicate and get our information. They don’t want us to be able to reach his base or for them to find out the truth. It might be why they are so intent on destroying our school system as well. He actually wasn’t lying about liking his people young and dumb. I just hope that he was lying when he said that we will never have to vote again.
How in the world can any sane, decent person still support this raving idiot?
The people supporting trump are not willing to face the facts. While reading Adam’s piece I thought of 3 people I wish would read this—people I love! But I know from experience they will.not.read.it. They choose to keep their belief systems by remaining ignorant. 😢
This is so painful. How do you deal with people you love who are part of the cult?
We simply don’t talk politics.
Same in my family as well, Margaret.
Exactly!
I have a mother and two adult daughters who are not affected, yet, so they believe everything is fine. They don’t talk to me because I tell them the truth trying to get them to stop drinking the Kool-aid.
i know someone who won't care. she knows she will be dead by 2032, and her attitude is that as long as it doesn't happen to her she doesn't care. nevermind that it will happen to her three daughters.
Agreed. And they are immersed in their own media bubbles of unconstrained and amplified ignorance.
YOU ARE SO RIGHT.
SOMEONE I AM CLOSE TO WORSHIPS TRUMP AND IS SIMPLY - UNWILLING - TO COUNTENACE ANY NEWS OR INFORMATION THAT IS CONTRARY TO HIM.
AND YET, I DO BELIEVE THE VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING, AND DO NOT LIKE IT.
ALSO,IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE TORRENT OF BAD NEWS FOR TRUMP, COUPLED WITH HIS ARROGANT, IDIOTIC STATEMENTS - "I LOVE THE INFLATION" - HAS TO TAKE A TOLL THAT WILL BE FELT IN THE MIDTERMS.
IF I WERE A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS PERSON IN A SWING STATE I WOULD BE LOOKING FOR A SMALL FARM TO BUY.
Ditto!!
I don't believe there are any sane and decent tRump supporters. They are lured in by his essential cruelty and kept there by the constant drumbeats of fear spoken to them by State Television. They are plain and simply enculted!
I used to be reluctant to call this a cult, but the more and more I see I really think it is. It is so weird to have friends that have normal jobs (one with a defense contractor with a security clearance), will go the extra mile to be kind to my cat or help me with something for my house but spew the most vile messages against Dumocrats and subscribe to election fraud conspiracy theories.
Two of my five siblings who would do anything for me but believe in Trump??? Of course, when their only source of news is FOX go figure :(
I agree with your description entirely. I now use this as a moral compass: if a person supports Trump, then there is something evil about them, whether it be their racism, anger, homophobia, or something else, it means to me that I should be highly cautious around them and probably go the other direction. I didn’t use to think that way about the “old style” Republicans. They were not of my political beliefs, but they weren’t evil either. Those were the good old days.
The people supporting this lunatic are just as psychotic, vengeful, hateful, foolish, imbecilic, self-serving as this pseudo-authoritarian racist rapist.
Because he's their culture warrior who has vowed to destroy their cultural enemy. Easy.
It's beyond me, too, Cindy!
MAGA cult will forgive him. They will now love inflation too!
You're probably right.
"It's the price we have to pay for freedom" when he costs us money. When he spitefully cut off the water project in Colorado farm country not long ago, those farmers still loved him. Asked about it, one said, "Well, if he did it, I'm sure he had a reason." No matter the corruption and incompetence, He's still God.
We’re not going to make it, are we?
I think that sometimes, but ya gotta have hope, and do what you can.
It's like "Take one for the Team"
I have a relative now saying we all need to suffer for our country. You know they are getting to the point where they can't even defend it anymore when they use suffer or "God works in mysterious ways" types of comments.
How did this guy ever reach this kind of adoration? You know your relative; can you give us some insight to who they are and how they think (these kind of supporters.) I’m serious by the way; I really would love to know what you think.
I have a hard time understanding but the best I can come up with is that Trump appeals to or fulfills some inner need and it is so powerful that the person overlooks or rationalizes the things they know are wrong Kind of like people in an unhealthy or abusive relationship and still keep sticking with it no matter how bad it gets
I had to turn him off. He was calling Platner every name that could be applied to himself. Can't stand to look at him or hear his voice anymore.
Every accusation is a confession.
I think that same thing every time he opens his vile mouth.
He's a master projectionist.
same
I am sooooo tired of seeing his face plastered all over the place and cannot bear the sound of his voice at all. Hoping he'll stroke out.
I appreciate you Adam. You are honest.
i couldn't agree more! i subscribe to a few other substacks that i feel are vitally important, but i had to pull back for my health's sake, and, therefore, adam's is the only substack i never miss.
Reading the last couple posts about the boos at the Knicks game and the inflation quip, I don't see how the current state of affairs can be framed as anything other than a failing, delusional narcissist being enabled by sycophantic handlers while he leads a fanatical cult. Regarding the handlers, let's go back and look at all the criticisms of people around Biden who hid his aging, and take a page out of that book for the people covering up Trump's obvious declines. Regarding the MAGA cult, it now seems foolish to apply reason or rationality to analyze/understand their duality and complicity. Instead, we should be viewing it through the lens of high-control groups who demand fealty to the leader, plain and simple. Boos = cheers? Okay! I will end inflation -> I love inflation? Sign me up! The lying is the point; it is how cult membership is defined.
Jayson - He had the perfect opportunity to blame the self inflicted inflation on Biden and it surprised me that he didn’t go to his fallback knee jerk ridiculous response. But his followers still try to blame the previous administration regardless of what the facts say. Maybe the bruising on his hands is because he refuses to use the autopen? So much hand signatures instead of handshakes? I’m sure the handlers will come up with something new to explain it all. While they use the autopen behind his back. Ending inflation and not starting new wars are not the only lies he told and it’s a shame that some people believed him.
He loves inflation because it angers people: chaos and rage fuel his authoritarianism
He also makes money from it.
Robot Bender - Yep…and all his donors/bribers. The only other “people” (according to the SC definition) that love him are the corporations.
BINGO
Same as Farage. Promote Brexit, stir up rage, and then blame it all on immigrants
OK, Adam. Question. When will something be done to remove this human being from office? How long does an administration wait, until we're all blown to bits, emotionally, physically, and spiritually? What does it take, for us to hear day after day after day this insanity, with no one taking the lead? What's wrong with this picture? Has the human race just plain given up? I haven't. People in this group haven't. What can we do?
Exactly my question, too!
Trump wasn't able to create this harm against ordinary Americans alone. The Republicans in all branches of government are equally responsible for this cruelty by supporting Trump in the past, present and I believe will continue to do so in the future.
Reaganomics is coming home to roost. That skewed philosophy that “entitlements “ like social security, making sure the poorest among us in the richest country in the world are fed, and healthcare is available to our elderly and poor are the problem. Tax cuts for the “job creators” and trickle down economics are celebrated . What we have now is a mutant, bloated, cartoonish version of this philosophy. The Republicans who followed nothing but their portfolio balance, rationalized that they are “fiscally conservative”, even while funding nothing wrong with gay marriage or reproductive freedom (and choosing to vote Republican because…you know…fiscal conservatism..) are a big problem. They didn’t pay attention, were assuaged by the nice things they owned…and blindly followed their party down a really dark path.
Laura - It always was the party that was against payments to the people who they thought didn’t deserve it and called it handouts. Yet, this is the same party that was perfectly fine with letting T collect our money through a back room deal and then hand it to insurrectionists.
No party is perfect but since at least Reagan the republicans scream about spending money if they aren’t in power and spend freely when they are. It seems to me that they leave nothing behind to make sure that if a democrat wins they don’t have anything left to implement the promises they made. Democrats have to spend their time trying to balance the budget and deal with the deficit. When they are voted out the cycle continues. And you are right because they base their wealth, and the current state of affairs, on the stock market while the rest of us don’t.
Well said! I totally agree.
Exactly.
I started taking SS at 62. I would have waited until 70, but had a feeling that all the threats about cutting it by a third, etc would come to pass. Someone please tell Speaker Johnson that it's not an entitlement. We all have paid into it. Would have been so much better to have let us put it into an investment fund.
I totally agree with you! I wish these people would stop saying they are an entitlement! We’ve paid into that for the 50+ years we’ve worked. I hope one day karma comes to bite them all in the ass.
Cutting social security and Medicare will cause a crisis in this country. I for one live on social security and my insurance is Medicare with a supplement. I spent my entire working life paying these programs. They are angering a base of voters that will not stand for these cuts. We must vote every one of them out.
i've been 100% disabled since i was 40, and that's a long time ago. as a career federal employee i retired with 40% of my top three salaries. i had to pay a lot for health insurance. i was impoverished until i met and married my husband. medicare is still a lifeline for me, and my future now looks rather bleak because my pension combined with a reduced medicare and a reduced amount of what i receive from my husband's social security will send me backwards if my husband predeceases me. and yet i will always be so much better off than my contemporaries who have no federal pension to go with social security and medicare. THE ANSWER LIES IN RAISING THE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE DEDUCTIONS FOR THE MOST WELL OFF! republicans are allergic to that.
You are kinder than me. I say FAFO to those who voted for him.
Outrageous! He just doesn't get it and never will.
I still can't believe that back in 2024 that people really believed the pitches at his rallies. They always seemed so fake to me.
the whole promises to lower prices and also end the war on ukraine on day one were always so ridiculous.
I know. It was always on Day 1, Lower prices on Day 1, End the War on Day 1 and even be a dictator on Day 1.
Just watching him, it's clear the man is insane. He lives in La-La Land. He wishes something to be true and "Presto" it is true. 15 minutes later he wishes the opposite to be true, and it's true too. He lies so effortlessly and with such conviction because in his demented mind he isn't lying.
It's not hard to believe that in a nation of 340 million people there is someone as nuts as Trump. What boggles the mind is that so many people will slavishly follow the ravings of a lunatic.
How do we get this to people who watch Fox and the right wing media structure that seems so invested in this Trump presidency?
NJS - Pretty sure that’s why he and his people are continuing to buy up all the ways that we communicate and get our information. They don’t want us to be able to reach his base or for them to find out the truth. It might be why they are so intent on destroying our school system as well. He actually wasn’t lying about liking his people young and dumb. I just hope that he was lying when he said that we will never have to vote again.