'Martyred savior of America': Former MAGA pundit reveals disturbing views behind Trump 'cult'

A former Trump-backing pundit is opening up about the quasi-religious way in which the former president's supporters view him, in an interview with Salon's Chauncey DeVega.

In essence, said Rich Logis, the Trump movement is a cult — a theory propounded by many other political observers, including former Republican lawmakers. But it goes even deeper than that.

"There are two prevailing ties that bind the MAGA cult," said Logis, who freely admits to being "deep" in this movement in 2020 and believes he would have never escaped if not for Trump's loss shaking him out of it. "The first is that Trump is an omniscient, omnipotent, martyred savior of America; some believe him to be sent by God."

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This, he noted, is one reason Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn't taking off — not only because he doesn't command the cult, but because his own quasi-religious branding of himself as being sent by God in political ads is considered an act of "heresy" in these circles.

"Martyrdom is the final stage of cult leadership, and to those in a cult, it is the outside world who are deceived," said Logis. "Those in this first category are willing to see through the cult to its fiery end."

But that is not the only type of person sucked into the movement, said Logis. Another is people who are "politically traumatized by their hyper-partisan, paralytic, paranoid worldview that Democrats, socialists, communists and Marxists have long conspired to tyrannically infringe upon their rights and freedoms."

Some Trump supporters, Logis noted, fit both groups.

Polling indicates that Trump is far ahead of any of his challengers for the 2024 nomination, DeSantis included, and last week's GOP debate in Milwaukee, which Trump blew off, appears to have had no impact on this.