MSNBC host Joy Reid drew parallels between Donald Trump and cult leaders like Charles Manson, arguing his rhetoric and demands of followers mirror cult behavior more than legitimate religious worship.
Reid noted the key difference between religion and cult is whether one is asked to die for their savior.
Reid said, “I was furiously texting my poor producers less than an hour before the show saying, wait a minute, as we’re talking about this, maybe we’re getting it wrong in a sense that, you know, I always say that the difference between religion and a cult is in religion your savior dies for you as Jesus did. In a cult, you’re asked to die for your savior. And what Donald Trump is doing, it’s equal parts the power of positive thinking which is the church to the extent it’s a church he grew up in, but it’s also kind of David Koresh. It’s kind of Jim Jones.”
Reid noted that Trump has progressed from evangelizing support to claiming himself as God and asking followers to commit violent acts for him like Manson did.
Reid warned Trump is just a politician trying to avoid legal consequences through financial support from believers, not an actual deity figure, calling his movement a “scam cult” manipulating followers.
“Because those two men started by saying you need to come to Jesus. They started as Christian evangelizers. Eventually, their evangelism said I get to have your wife, I get to tell you to kill these federal agents that are outside. I’m asking you to pick up a machine gun and shoot them because I don’t want to go to jail. This is Manson stuff, where you stop saying worship God and you start saying I am God. I am God is what Trump is saying to his followers,” she said.
She closed by saying Trump is “selling helter-skelter”, referring to the violent aftermath of Manson’s cult, and deemed his influence over devotees as “scary stuff”.
She said, “Donald Trump is not God. He’s not Jesus. He’s just a politician who doesn’t want to go to prison, and he’s selling you crap sneakers to make you pay his legal bills when he’s supposedly a billionaire. It’s a scam, a cult. Wake up, people and stay woke.
Reid said, “He’s selling helter-skelter. It’s scary stuff.”