The first few weeks of the Trump administration have been exhausting and overwhelming. This is intentional.
As women raised in the Christian patriarchy know, it’s so much easier to control someone when they’re sleep-deprived and raising nine children and don’t have any margin.
Trump is running a cult. Once you accept that fact, the pieces fall into place.
Cult, n. “A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members.”
Steven Hassan, a cult survivor and leading expert on mind control and undue influence, developed the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control to identify the control tactics of a specific group. Used along with his Influence Continuum Model, people can assess where a group falls on the spectrum from “healthy persuasion and education to undue coercion and manipulation.” The BITE model (Behavior, Information, Thoughts, and Emotions) helps us understand how someone’s identity can be systematically manipulated and changed by a high-control group.
Hassan’s models are useful for analyzing the Cult of Trump and understanding why his voters seem to be operating in an alternate reality. He offers gentle guidance on what we can do to help people trapped inside high-control groups and, just as importantly, what we cannot do. Blessings upon you if you can be that outside voice of reality for Trump followers.
For the rest of us, we need to listen to survivors of Christian cults. These survivors have experienced years—sometimes decades—inside places that make Project 2025 look like child’s play.
How do we resist? Here are a few suggestions—and please add your ideas in the comments!
Work for the common good. Combatting cult behavior means working for the good of everyone, even if you’d rather ensure that the cult members reap the consequences of their actions. Here’s why: cults depend on an us vs. them mentality. Prioritize community infrastructure that helps everyone: roads, libraries, grocery stores, etc.
Embrace multi-generational change. Even if Trump goes away, the alternate reality he enabled will not. There’s no easy fix to decades of fascist expansion; some of us may not live to see things get better. So borrow a strategy from the Christian cult playbook and invest in the next generation.
Go to therapy. Dismantling systems of oppression must begin within ourselves. Too often, cult survivors physically escape but they don’t untangle the systematic manipulation they’ve experienced. Want to combat Project 2025? Go to therapy, unlearn binary ways of knowing, and do somatic work to help your body heal.
Become a notary in your state. When the Nazis marched across Europe, people who could provide refugees with passports, identity papers, and other forms of documentation were lifesavers. Are you worried about ICE sweeping through your community? Become a notary and help vulnerable community members with a power of attorney so that others are legally authorized to advocate on their behalf.
Grow food. You don’t have to be in a commune or cult to participate in community gardening. Plant some herbs in a pot and share them with your neighbors. Gardening delivers health benefits and helps you weather the inevitable food shortages that are coming.
Donate to the Internet Archive. When the Trump administration removed data from the CDC website, the Internet Archive captured it. Cult leaders benefit when we forget our history, but archives exist to provide accountability. The more that Project 2025 architects strip from the “official” history, the more important archives become. Donate to the Internet Archive the next time Trump gets under your skin. They’re doing the Lord’s work.
Create your Personal Archive. In 2020,
and I developed the Personal Archive Assignment. Our prompts were initially designed for a classroom, but anyone is welcome to use them. Cults intentionally erase individuality and agency. When the Trump cult says that you don’t exist or that you have no rights, push back against that symbolic annihilation and document your existence. Bonus points if you create a personal archive in analog form because the internet is NOT forever.
What would you add to this list?
Support companies that value their employees (I.e. Costco) instead of those that don’t (I.e Walmart)
Check in regularly with neighbors and friends to see how they are doing. Especially be mindful of the elderly, single moms, and other more vulnerable folks.
Keep educating yourself/your kids/your sphere of influence. Read books such as “The Power Worshippers,” Jesus and John Wayne”, “On Tyranny” and watch documentaries such as “Bad Faith” and “God and Country. Sign up for Substacks and follow people on Blue Sky that understand and connect all the dots.
Keep supporting the arts! (Music, dance, literature, plays, etc)