The Personality Cult of Donald Trump

Introduction

Now that we’re just past the halfway point of Donald Trump’s presidency, many within the Republican party are increasingly baffled as to the near-mystical hold Trump has over his incredibly loyal and supportive base — many of whom are made up of white, evangelical Christians. Going back to the 2016 election, statistics showed that 81% of those white evangelical Christians voted for him, and most of those still support him and his policies wholeheartedly.

Even now, generally among Republicans nationwide, according to Gallup polls, Trump’s popularity as of May 2019 sits at an incredible 87%. When compared to just 8% of Democrats who approve of him, this partisan split actually set a record for American presidents, and further demonstrates that Trump’s base remains remarkably stable in its support for him. All this, despite Trump’s countless scandals, nonstop stream of lies, and ongoing criminal investigations into multiple aspects of his political and business life.

That remarkable fact makes for an excellent segue into the topic at hand: why indeed are Trump’s base so blindly loyal to him? This question is especially perplexing in the case of Trump-supporting evangelical Christians, for example, who (in theory at least) purport to stand against virtually everything that Trump has clearly revealed himself to be: a…