"The Cult of Trump" by Steve Hassan

When I headed off to university in the fall of 1979, I didn't get very many cautionary lectures from my parents. But the one stern admonition I did get from my mother was, "If someone asks you to go away on a weekend retreat -- YOU SAY NO."

Mom was referring to the proliferation of "Moonies" around the nearby city where I was headed to university -- devotees of the Unification Church and its leader, Reverend Sun Myung Moon. They were becoming infamous for selling flowers on city street corners all over North America, and luring others into abandoning their jobs and families to join them.

Around the same time, a Montreal reporter named Josh Freed published a fascinating book (which I bought and read at the time and still remember) called "Moonwebs," describing how he & a group of friends sought to extricate and deprogram a friend who had fallen under the Moonies' spell. (It was later adapted into a movie called "Ticket to Heaven," starring a number of recognizable young Canadian actors, including Kim Cattrall, later better known as Samantha on TV's "Sex in the City.")

One of Moon's recruits in the mid-1970s was a young man named Steven Hassan. After two years as a Moonie, his family managed to extricate him from the cult and deprogram him. He's now a licensed mental health counselor, an exit counselor, and a recognized expert on cults who has written two books on the subject. I saw him on CNN's "Reliable Sources" a few months ago speaking about his latest book, "The Cult of Trump." I'd already heard several commentators describing the connection between Donald Trump and some of his more ardent followers as "cult-like," and was intrigued enough to download the book to my e-reader.

In this book (published last October), Hassan explains the typical characteristics of cults and cult leaders, outlines the techniques they use to develop and exert control over their followers -- and then draws parallels between some well-known cults (religious and otherwise) and their leaders, such as Rev. Moon, L. Ron Hubbard, Charles Manson, David Koresh and Jim Jones, and Donald Trump. He emphasizes that (of course) not all Trump voters & followers are cultists -- but nevertheless, the case he makes here is pretty compelling (as well as sobering).  Towards the end, he outlines some things we can do to combat the influence of cults in our society, including how to recognize and resist mind control in our own lives, and how to reach out to the Trump fanatics we know and gently challenge them in their beliefs.

The book's description says, "Hassan’s book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the Trump phenomenon and looking for a way forward."  I agree. It's pretty readable, well researched and documented.

Four stars on Goodreads

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ALI point of interest:  Hassan mentions Norman Vincent Peale, his church sermons and his book "The Power of Positive Thinking" as influential in Trump's development, as well as in the rise of positive thinking/laws of attraction movements such as "The Secret." In Chapter 3, Hassan writes:

I have counseled people who have suffered debilitating delusions as a result of their involvement with Peale's school of thought. While positive thinking can be beneficial, it has to balanced by critical thinking, humility, and a social support system that is willing to say when a person is off base. The danger is when it veers off into magical thinking -- that if you believe fully, the universe will manifest. If it doesn't happen, people often blame themselves -- they aren't believing or praying hard enough. [emphasis mine]

Sound familiar??

This was Book #10 read in 2020 to date (Book #1 finished in March), bringing me to 33% of my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 30 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. :)

My review of Book #9, Living the Life Unexpected by Jody Day, will be posted next week.