ICE: The Fear Is The Point

We've all seen the images and videos. Men, and a few women, dressed in plainclothes, ballistic vests (some emblazoned with "POLICE"), baseball caps or beanies, and balaclavas or neck gaiters covering their faces. They're typically driving unmarked vehicles, with very little – if anything – identifying them as something other than Random Person Driving A Car.

They're federal law enforcement agents working for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); either Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Federal cops, essentially, who are 100% unidentifiable as law enforcement agents/officers.

So what gives? Why are these DHS law enforcement agents so determined to remain anonymous?

In a glaring photo negative, local police departments – to minimize negative press and improve community relations – engage in more positive PR activities, such as:

• "Coffee With A Cop¹" events where residents of the areas these officers serve meet at neutral locations to have coffee and some chitchat.
• "Shop With A Cop²," where law enforcement officers are paired with underprivileged, "at-risk" children to go on shopping sprees during the Christmas holiday season.
• TikTok dance trends³ that show groups of police from different departments doing their silly dances, often challenging other departments to respond with their own videos.

PR campaigns aiming to show police officers (who can very easily be identified as law enforcement agents) going out of their way to ingratiate themselves into the areas they serve. Trying to humanize them, so we don't just see "Cop;" the goal is to get communities to equate "police" to "Human being that has a normal job."

I do want to be clear that my comparison of local/state police to ICE/CBP agents is in no way intended to be police apologism. My goal is not to paint uniformed police officers in a good, or bad, way. We may have negative opinions about these officers, but there is still a comparative level of normalcy. As opposed to dozens of plainclothes, masked individuals swarming communities like a pack of rabidjackals. Coming in hot, sans judicial warrants, refusing to identify themselves even when asked, disappearing people with no explanation, etc. The two groups are quite different. But that's the whole point.

In an interaction with these police officers, we're able to easily see (or ask for) their names, where they work, badge numbers, police cruiser ID number, etc. None of it is a secret. They don't hide their faces, leaving us to wonder who they are or if they're even a member of a law enforcement agency, in a stark difference to what we see when looking at or interacting with ICE/CBP agents.

The latter don't have fancy PR campaigns trying to make them feel relatable. Anything we see about them, aside from the videos recorded by vigilant observers, are the propaganda-laden social media posts presenting these agents as some sort of vigilante posses, sent to round up the baddies...straight out of a dystopian thriller movie.

The reality is that they don't want us to feel comfortable. They don't want us to have even the slightest illusion that the presence of ICE/CBP among us is for anything positive. It isn't about "protect and serve;" it's about "terrorize and harm."

These individuals have been selected to be agents for DHS because they are loyal to Donald Trump, not because they were the most qualified for a position that is, largely, about enforcing civil, not criminal, law. Agenda 47⁴ led the charge on recruiting people to fill as many positions within the federal government as possible, primarily with Trump sycophants. Much of this began taking place several weeks before Trump's inauguration.

In the push to hire as many agents as possible within such a short window, there was a serious disregard for proper vetting. There have been multiple investigative reports on exactly how this force of agents was created, including one that found several new hires showed up to complete their training...without ever having had a single background check or submitting fingerprints⁵.

Lax – or nonexistent – vetting processes have created a horrific situation, where many of the agents tyrannizing our cities have violent pasts.

For example, the assistant field office director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in Cincinnati – Samuel Saxon – has a history of "chronic, extreme allegations of domestic violence⁶." Just this December, he was arraigned on charges after he attacked his then-girlfriend by strangulation and chokehold, all of which was recorded by a neighbor. Police were called out to Saxon's home on domestic violence situations, over the course ofjust one year, 23 times. In 2018, in two separate incidents, he broke his partner's nose and her pelvis. This woman, by the way, was 18 when their relationship began...and Saxon was 40. She was also not a US citizen.

In another instance, a recruit showed up for training, and it wasn't immediately caught by staff that he'd previously had criminal charges, including armed robbery, battery, and domestic violence.

But recruitment and vetting are not the only issues. It's the training, which has been severely truncated, and focuses on arbitrary quotas. It's relaxed standards for how these agents are expected to conduct themselves. It's opening applicant age range to begin at 18, but have no age cap⁷. It's having DHS run ads that targeted current state and local law enforcement, implying that standard policing rules and restraints wouldn't apply at ICE⁸. This is just the tip of the iceberg (pun intended).

You see, when you take all of these factors, and more, into consideration, a very grim picture begins to take shape: the primary purpose of the ICE/CBP agents under Donald Trump’s administration is not to "solve" the so-called immigration crisis. It's to terrorize Americans. To scare us into submission so we'll stand aside and let them all carry out their dastardly authoritarian plans.

ICE/CBP function very differently in "red" states than they do in "blue" states. Not just the threats Trump makes when he's mad at a Democrat governor (e.g. Gavin Newsom [CA] and Tim Walz [MN]) or mayor (e.g. Brandon Johnson [Chicago] and Ted Wheeler [Portland]), but the way immigration arrests happen is very different.

In "red" states, most immigration arrests happen in prisons/jails. But in "blue" states, it's an entirely different story. 70% of arrests take place out in the open, in the community⁹. This is why almost every video of ICE/CBP brutality comes from "blue" cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota or Los Angeles, California.

Accident? Coincidence? No. Absolutely not. This is a very deliberate campaign of terror.

Despite the fear-mongering claims of only arresting the "criminal" element, the vast majority of those arrested and/or detained by ICE/CBP have never committed a serious crime¹⁰; in some cases, the targeted individuals haven't even committed misdemeanors. It's no coincidence, then, that 2025 was the deadliest year immigration enforcement has had in decades¹¹.

Tuberculosis. Stroke. Respiratory failure. In some cases, suicide. "This is a result of the deteriorating conditions inside of ICE detention," per Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network.

Though it's difficult to get accurate numbers, as much of this comes from DHS records, as of October 2025 at least 170 US citizens have been arrested and detained by ICE/CBP¹².

Again: none of this is accidental. The terror isn't a bug, it's a feature. Or, dare I say, the whole fucking point. If Trump's and DHS's main goals were truly about the arrest and deportation of actual criminals, we'd be watching a very different scene play out. Frankly, a much more boring scene.

If we're being honest with ourselves, the US immigration system has been in need of overhaul for quite some time. I'm not going to theorize why these issues have gone unchanged, unfixed, through multiple presidential administrations - Democrat and Republican alike. It's far too complex an issue to summarize in one or two paragraphs.

But for Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the jagged pieces of the fractured immigration system have served as the foundation upon which they've constructed their warped, gratuitously violent, populist nightmare.

Truly, I'm not sure which is scarier: their goal to terrorize cities and states they see as being led by/filled with political dissidents, or the fact that the terrorism is working, and we're all frightened, almost to the point of being paralyzed with fear. 

Almost.

We aren't throwing in the towel just yet. I don't think Trump and his buddies were expecting righteous fury to accompany the fear. In fact, there have been several nationwide protests and demonstrations in the last year. 

Over the summer, the first round of the "No Kings" protests saw about 6 million people across the country¹³. The second wave, in October, 7 million people showed up and showed out in over 2,700 cities and towns¹⁴, becoming – if not the biggest, it was certainly one of the biggest – single-day protests in US history.

Though official counts aren't in, massive, nationwide protests¹⁵ took place on January 10th, 2026 over the murder of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 7th. Over 1,000 US cities and towns. There was even a vigil held outside the US embassy in Berlin¹⁶.

Just by refusing to stand by and let these terroristic actions control our lives, we're throwing a wrench in Trump's plans. He and the rest of his administration and oligarch buddies want us running scared. That's their goal: to keep Americans too terrified to fight back or challenge him, and too scared to speak up and say, "This is not okay!"

It isn't just threats anymore. They're kidnapping and disappearing us. They're brutalizing and, in some cases, killing us. They're lying in the face of overwhelming evidence that shows us the facts; gaslighting us and trying to force the justice system to bend to their will to be further weaponized against us.

They want to crush any and all dissent, but it must be big and it must be public so it has the desired effect: terrorizing us into silent acquiescence.

We are being put to the test right now, every day, in cities across America, where a state-sponsored group of anonymous assholes are violently terrorizing our communities. Our people – family, friends, neighbors. Our homes. Our schools and churches and libraries.

Novelist Salman Rushdie once wrote, "How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared." How will you defeat terrorism today?

.

¹ https://coffeewithacop.com/

² https://shopwithacopatx.org/

 

³ https://youtu.be/iKu4KwGQ1BI?si=ETu4Ml5C1B8lzmLU

⁴ https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/30/trump-administration-patriotic-americans-federal-workforce-00376752

⁵ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/new-ice-recruits-showed-training-full-vetting-rcna238739

⁶ https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/01/12/in-wake-of-minnesota-shooting-questions-persist-about-violent-ice-agents-in-ohio/#:~:text=But%20a%20New%20York%20Times,and%20Removal%20Operations%20Cincinnati%20Suboffice.

⁷ https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/dem/releases/durbin-presses-noem-on-lax-ice-hiring-standards-inflammatory-recruitment-messaging

⁸ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/30/trump-local-police-immigration

⁹ https://local12.com/news/nation-world/heres-how-ice-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-arrests-differ-between-red-and-blue-states-cincinnati-sanctuary-policies-local-enforcement-laws-president-united-american-immigration-officials-bill-reconciliation-budget-detentions-administration

¹⁰ https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/26/more-than-90-percent-of-ice-detainees-have-never-been-convicted-of-violent-crimes/

¹¹ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timeline

¹² https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will

¹³ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/no-kings-how-many-protesters-attended

¹⁴ https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/seven-million-people-unite-at-peaceful-no-kings-protests-to-defend-our-first-amendment-rights

¹⁵ https://www.npr.org/2026/01/10/nx-s1-5673229/ice-protests-minneapolis-portland-renee-good

The Truth About Disability: Are Disabled Individuals a Burden in a Collapsing Society?

"Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision." -Stevie Wonder

We've all played the "Zombie Apocalypse" game: in case of a breakdown in society due to virus that creates a population of the "undead", how would each person in your life, aka your "team" be beneficial? Are they proficient with firearms and other weapons? Do they have a strong mind for strategy? Do they have medical training? Are they an "outside the box" creative thinker? Do they have the ability to identify edible versus poisonous vegetation?

Well, I'm disabled and have chronic illnesses. On my team, I've been designated as a wound care specialist, and strategist. From personal experience, I'm a whiz with traumatic wound care. I'm not squeamish. Plus, I read a lot, and can often think of a situation from multiple angles. Oh, and puzzles...I. love puzzles!

I have a few autoimmune disorders, which means my body likes to attack itself for no damn good reason. I also have degenerative joint disease that primarily affects my back: my lumbar and sacral vertebrae (mid- and lower back) are degenerating (breaking down), causing stenosis (narrowing) of the spaces between vertebrae, and impingement on the nerves, and the discs are breaking down from the pressure. Lastly, but perhaps most significantly, I'm an amputee. My left leg, below the knee, was amputated in 2020, after a long battle with multiple surgeries. I'm constantly in pain. I rarely feel "good." This is just part of who I am, and that's okay. 

My sense of humor. This is how I marked

which leg was to be amputated prior to surgery. 2020

But, because of the multiple surgeries, complications, and really wonky scarring, I'm not able to walk with a prosthesis. I'm a wheelchair user. That, of course, has had me thinking I'd be a liability in really any emergency disaster situation, and certainly in a damn zombie apocalypse!

Me, recovering from one of many surgeries. 2020

Now, though, the question of how an apocalypse team would work in the case of societal breakdown is becoming more and more real. Not because of zombies, though. It's our government, the fact that, while so much is still left unknown, the things we do know are terrifyingly chaotic. We're watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk chisel away at every agency and system - one at a time - upon which our society has been built, for better or worse.

Do we desperately need societal reform? Absolutely. There are countless issues within our government that just aren't working anymore, or perhaps never really did work. But there's a big difference between remodeling a building, and razing a structure, leaving nothing but debris behind. The latter serves no one.

But that's not the point of this piece; we just needed a little context. We needed to understand the circumstances under which a breakdown of society as we know it would cause complete anarchy, leaving us all in a fight to survive long enough to rebuild.

Do you know how common it is for disabled people to assert that they'd just slow everyone down, put lives at risk, and as such a liability, the best option for all involved would be to, delicately put, no longer exist? I've thought this myself more times than I'd care to admit. I've seen people having this conversation several times recently on social media, and the Reddit community, r/disability, has several threads where people have asked the same question: what happens to us in an apocalypse?

I think, in this much more realistic and likely apocalypse/societal breakdown scenario, we need to stop thinking in terms of "teams," and more in terms of "communities."

The difference? A team, typically used to refer to sports or games, is a group of people coming together to work toward a common goal. But a community is a (often larger) group of people who've come together, often live within close proximity, sharing common attitudes, goals, interests, etc. Communities are a way of life. A necessity to not just survive, but to thrive. Historically, and even in modern society, we see communities working well. Thriving. Communities care about each member, while teams care about members who can bring them closer to their goal(s).

In a community, a disability is not an exclusionary trait. Those who truly understand those concepts know that each member has abilities and skills that benefit the whole, but they also understand that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Community-oriented people believe in protecting and caring for all members.

Maybe you can't run, or lift heavy things. But you might be able to provide care for infants and children. You don't have the physical strength to fistfight? We can teach you how to use weapons. My point being that we often are very good at focusing on our "weaknesses," forgetting just how many things we are able to do, and that doesn't just happen with folks who are disabled. Literally everyone does that at one point or another in their life.

It's like when the most attractive person we've seen starts pointing out their "flaws" as we stare, mouth agape, that they are able to find anything about themselves to dislike. Our own perceptions can play a helluva game with our minds.

But in a community? We've all got a part to play, and we all matter. Communities don't single out those who are "weak" or incapable of performing certain tasks. What an arbitrary way to sort through a population, anyway. Who determines that "weakness"? Who decides what matters most to a community?

Communities have programs or individuals that can help people learn new things, where we can all grow as individuals, for no other reason than to expand our minds and evolve as human beings. At the end of the day, we all have a part to play; a role that is indispensable. A role that no one but you can fill. Picture a choir: their voices, while all different, coalesce into one beautifully harmonized sound.

The sense of belonging. Interaction with multiple different people. Mutual support. Personal, and communal, growth. Accountability. Advocacy. Education. Diversity. Relationships. Reduced stress. Healthier population. Shared legacy. Lower instances of preventable chronic illnesses. And, as happiness.com puts it, "Community belonging helps us accept that sometimes we're strong and sometimes we're vulnerable and that we need the support of others to avoid unnecessary emotional struggles and pain."

Communities don't just matter when everything around us is collapsing. They help make sure that, no matter what happens in this world, the individual members that create the larger community don't fall. Or, in the words of Helen Keller, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

 

Navigating News: The Indispensable Role of Independent Journalists Against a Hostile Administration

Top Independent Journalists

and

 Alternative Media You Can Rely On

"On the campaign trail and during his previous administration, President-elect Donald Trump has frequently deployed violent language and threats against the media. His election to a second term in office marks a dangerous moment for American journalism and global press freedom." -Reporters Without Borders

"To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news and I don't mind that so much."

"One of the things I'm going to do if I win, and I hope we do and we're certainly leading. I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected." 

"I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that I have ever met, I have to tell you. I see the stories, and I see the way they’re couched."

"It’s fake news. It’s totally fake news. Made up. Fake. We went through the same stories. You could have asked me the same questions four years ago. I had to litigate this and talk about it. Totally fake news. No."

"The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!" (Posted to Twitter/X; no corrections made.)

"Why should NBC, or any of the other corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable airwaves of the USA, FREE?"

Every one of those quotes are straight from our President-elect, Donald J. Trump, spanning almost 10 years. They're certainly not an anomaly coming from the Trump camp; attacks on media outlets he believes are giving him "unfair" coverage has been in his campaign/presidential playbook from day one.

His attacks on mainstream media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, and even Fox News have only ramped up with his looming second term in the White House.

What's worse, though, is that it appears to be working. Take popular MSNBC morning show, Morning Joe, and its two primary anchors, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Less than two weeks after Election Day, they traveled to Trump's Florida residence, Mar-a-lago, for a sit-down meeting, which they later stated was the first time they've seen him in seven years.

When Scarborough and Brzezinski broke this news to their audience, they attempted to frame their visit as an attempt to "restart communications," but this has been widely viewed as a betrayal of their viewers, their co-anchors at MSNBC, and their journalistic integrity. Their ratings are plummeting significantly, most notably in the days following their announcement.

I've no intention of sounding the proverbial alarm, or cause panic; having a consistently reliable source of information is never a bad thing. Therefore, I've compiled a small miscellany of trustworthy, independent journalists, as well as independent and/or alternative nonprofit news outlets that we can rely on to deliver factual, evidence-based reporting in the coming years. 

I'll try to update this piece regularly. If you have a journalist you'd like to see added to my list, please shoot me an email with their name, website, and/or social media information.

Journalists

Yashar Ali

• Substack
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• YouTube
• Email

Rachel Bitecofer

• Substack
• Medium
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky 
• Threads  
• LinkedIn 

Katelyn Burns

• Patreon
• Medium 
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky 
• Facebook 

Charlotte Clymer

• Substack
• Medium
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• LinkedIn
• Email

Brian Tyler Cohen

• Substack 
• Twitter/X 
• Bluesky 
• Threads
• Facebook
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Podcast (No Lie With Brian Tyler Cohen)
• Email/contact

Jenny Cohn

• Medium
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Bucks County Beacon  
• YouTube

Heather Cox Richardson

• Substack
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• YouTube 
• Podcast (Letters From An American)
• Email

Oliver Darcy

• Status News
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads  
• LinkedIn 
• Email

Julie DiCaro

• Blog (Losing My Perspicacity)
• Medium
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads  
• Google Books (Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being A Woman In America)
• TikTok 
• LinkedIn 
• Email

Michael Harriot

• Substack
• Medium
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• LinkedIn 
• Email

Imara Jones

• LinkedIn
• TransLash Media
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• Podcast (The Mess: Imara's Guide to Our Political Hellscape) -Apple; Browser; Spotify
• YouTube 
• Email/contact

Taylor Lorenz

• Substack
• User Mag
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• YouTube 
• TikTok
• LinkedIn 
• Email

Parker Molloy

• Substack
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• LinkedIn 
• Email/contact 

Brett Meiselas

• Substack
• Twitter/X 
• Bluesky 
• Threads
• Facebook 
• LinkedIn 
• TikTok 
• YouTube
• Email

Elie Mystal

• Substack
• The Nation
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• LinkedIn 
• Email

Qasim Rashid

• Substack
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• YouTube 
• LinkedIn 
• Email/contact 

Jim Stewartson

• Substack 
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky
• Threads 
• Facebook 
• TikTok 
• LinkedIn 

Andrew Wortman

• Substack
• Twitter/X
• Bluesky 

Independent, Nonprofit, and/or Alternative News Outlets

The 19th News

The 19th is an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics and policy.

• Left bias
• MBFC¹ credibility rating: High credibility

Associated Press (AP)

The Associated Press is a nonprofit news agency. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are distributed to its members, major U.S. daily papers, and radio and television broadcasters.

• Left-center bias
• MBFC¹ credibility rating: High credibility

Democracy Docket 

Democracy Docket is the leading progressive platform for information, analysis, and opinion about voting rights, elections, and democracy.

• Left bias 
• MBFC¹ credibility rating: High credibility

The Intercept

The Intercept is a left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts.

• Left bias
• MBFC¹ credibility rating: High credibility
• MBFC¹ rated The Intercept as having "mostly factual" reporting due to previous censorship of writers, but currently, The Intercept is rated as a credible news outlet

National Public Radio (NPR)

National Public Radio (NPR) is a nonprofit public broadcasting organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of more than 1,000 public radio stations in the U.S. Unlike other nonprofit news organizations, NPR stands out, in that it was established by an act of Congress, via the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Public Broadcasting Act intended to support educational, cultural, and instructional in  public radio and television.

• Left-center bias
• MBFC¹ credibility rating: High credibility 

ProPublica

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

• Left-center bias 
• MBFC¹ credibility rating: High credibility

 

¹MBFC = Media Bias/Fact Check

*Not all entities/people on this list have made public the same information; while some will include email or Facebook, for example, others do not.

**This list is in no way intended to be an exhaustive list of independent journalists and/or nonprofit news organizations.

*** Information regarding political bias, credibility, etc., and charts labeled "FACTUAL REPORTING" are created and published by Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) Their methodology is explained on their website, and on Wikipedia.

Is MAGA Really A Cult?

In 1988, American rock band, Living Colour, had a song about this very thing: "Cult of Personality." "I sell the things you need to be. I'm the smiling face on your TV. Oh, I'm the cult of personality. I exploit you, still you love me. I tell you, 'one and one makes three.' Oh, I'm the cult of personality." They sung of things seen before, in countries across the globe. But in America? Surely it can't happen here. Right?

Since 2016, that fated day when Donald Trump won the presidential election, beating career politician Hillary Clinton, there have been hints and accusations of cultish behavior by those who voted for him, often referred to, collectively by the intialism of Trump's campaign motto: MAGA, or Make America Great Again.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when the calls of being a cult began. Some believe it was when, in campaign speech, Hillary Clinton said half of Trump's supporters were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic," and assigned a pejorative, calling them a "basket of deplorables." The following day, she walked it back, saying that Trump had "amplified hateful views and voices," but it was too late. MAGA voters had reclaimed the insult, and wore it with pride. "Deplorables," much like many women used Trump's jab at Clinton, saying she was a "nasty woman," became a rallying cry, of sorts.

So, are they a cult? Have MAGA become a cult of personality in the years following his first campaign? Let's look at what, exactly, defines a cult of personality, first. 

Britannica's definition: "A deliberately created system of art, symbolism, and ritual centred [sic] on the institutionalized quasi-religious glorification of a specific individual." They continue, saying, "this term has been most often used to refer to charismatic leader cults, a type of personality cult which is based on a political leader, and designed to enforce their power, magnify their ideology, and legitimize the rule of the government associated with them."

A study tracking the usage of "personality cult" or "cult of personality" in articles by the New York Times from 2010 to 2022; very noticeable spikes began from Trump's candidacy announcement in 2015, and grew from there.

A very basic understanding, just from these two sources, seem to be all we need to definitively conclude that, in fact, MAGA have become a cult of personality, following the man who gleefully bragged about his complete control over them, publicly boasting at a campaign stop in 2016 that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" without losing a single voter. "It's, like, incredible."

Even Donald Trump himself knows exactly what he's created: a multi-headed monster of worshippers willing to say anything, do anything to uplift him. Willing to abandon the Constitution they claim to so strongly support; willing to commit violent insurrection on his behalf, and truly believe that they are fighting a form of tyranny, sans evidence, simply because he said so;  willing to commit violent, often racially-motivated, crimes to further his cause; willing to interfere in the process of elections, something many Americans have, up to now, considered sacrosanct.

I haven't even touched on the fringe Christian religious cults based on the concept of Donald Trump as some sort of messianic figure, or those, such as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) who believe in the Seven Mountains Mandate - Christian control of society via infiltration, influencing, and controlling seven areas of society: business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family and religion.

We must also view this through a more scientific/psychological lens by examining the "Big Five" personality traits, and their relevance to understanding a cult of personality. The five-factor model of personality, or OCEAN, are: 

O - Openness to experience (inventive/curious vs consistent/cautious)

C - Conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs extravagant/careless)

E - Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs solitary/reserved)

A - Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs critical/judgemental)

N - Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs resilient/confident)

These traits can potentially indicate characteristics that could make people more susceptible to idolizing and unquestioningly following a charismatic leader. Studies have found, using The Big Five, that Trump’s supporters have high levels of conscientousness, unrelated to their political conservatism. They are often disillusioned, with low self-esteem based on their life experiences. Decades old studies, from rationalist perspectives, focus on perceived deprivation, with the belief that the central figure in the cult can compensate, via affirmation and status, for their understanding of social inequities. 

MAGA don't see themselves as being part of something bad or negative. They've found community. They feed off of one another in echo chambers created primarily in online, social media spaces. On The West Wing, their season three opener, "Isaac and Ishmael" sees the White House west wing staff stuck in a lockdown, with a group of high school students who earned a trip to Washington D.C. A discussion, between the staff and students, about terrorism ensues. Charlie Young (played by Dulé Hill) compares terrorist groups to gangs, explaining that they aren't ashamed of their participation; rather, they're quite proud. They feel a sense of belonging. I'd imagine this is exactly how MAGA feel: they belong to a community.

Honestly, as I began researching, it became clear that it would be harder to find reliable sources to disprove the MAGA faction were a cult. They have sects that are religious cults as well as a political cult of personality. 

This is a group of people who have seemingly abandoned previous ideologies for one that focuses on Donald J. Trump at the center of everything: he's the only one capable of fixing everything from the proverbial D.C. swamp to child sex predators to the economics in the United States, and everything in between. Though his every action appears to disprove his ability or willingness to do any of those things, MAGA are somehow unable to see the reality of their situation, or their leader.

So, here we are. Is MAGA a cult of personality? What do you think?