What Our Addiction to Donald Trump Says About the U.S.

“I Can’t Quit You, Baby … Heroin … I Can’t Quit Her … Kicks … Can’t Quit … That Smell”

These are all rock or blues songs about relationship addiction or addiction in general. And being about addiction — they are also about its nasty, often deadly consequences.

In today’s United States, addiction has recently morphed into an even greater and far weirder problem — because a huge segment of our population, along with almost the entire GOP, seems to be heavily addicted to an angry, vengeful ex-president named Donald Trump.

I’m not sure what to call this bizarre phenomenon besides … addiction. It’s that irrational and compulsive — and dangerous.

Addiction defined and re-defined

But what IS addiction? It’s a word we casually throw around, assuming we know what we’re talking about. Most of the time we have drug/alcohol addiction in mind — but that’s just one type of addiction (though a very prevalent and destructive one) among many.

In recent decades, psychologists, doctors, and ‘addictionologists’ have expanded our understanding of addiction to include things like relationship, sex, porn, gambling, and Internet addiction.

I would add to that list: anger addiction. Featuring: rage-aholics — like Trump.

And today, there’s no better example of widespread anger addiction than the horrifying way millions upon millions of Americans are totally enraptured by Mr. Trump: a cruel, abusive bully who delights in enraging people, getting them ‘all fired up,’ and making his ‘enemies’ (and he has lots of enemies) sweat and squirm.

The unique thing about anger addiction is that it’s primarily dangerous to others, and not to the addicts themselves. Anger addicts may end up doing themselves in eventually — but they’re much more likely to use violence to hurt or kill others.

What are the characteristics of addiction?

Verywellmind.com succinctly defines addiction as “the compulsive use of a rewarding substance or activity despite experiencing adverse consequences.”

The defining characteristics of addiction include: escalating loss of control; self-deception; lying to others; escalating ‘need’ for the drug, substance, relationship, or thing one is addicted to; ever-increasing undermining of one’s daily life and healthy routines; and — if the addiction continues unchecked — eventual collapse and even death.

In the case of Trump, the “rewarding substance or activity” seems to be Trump himself, engaged in his awful ‘normal’ activities and saying the awful things he tends to say. That’s the much-desired ‘reward’ (hard to believe, I know).

Over the past eight years we Americans have had ample opportunities to see who he really is, what he’s really like, and all the terrible things he tends (and intends) to do. We’ve witnessed his almost-constant anger, his almost-constant lying, his paranoid rages, his demeaning, racist attacks on immigrants and people of color, his demeaning attacks on women, and his abusive pattern of continually hitting up his followers for money … and more money.

Let’s not forget: he is a very experienced con man and demagogue, and he knows exactly how to manipulate and own the marks. And apparently, the marks are only too willing to be manipulated and owned. Many of them admittedly adore him.

Why are Trump’s followers so blindly devoted to him?

But why? Why are his followers so willing to be manipulated, abused, and led around by the nose by such an obvious grifter, abuser, and rage-aholic? Why are they so addicted to him?

Hundreds — no, thousands — of commentators, pundits, sociologists, and psychologists have been puzzling over Trump’s enduring appeal for eight years now. Many are supporting the story line that Trump appeals — deeply — to all the ‘forgotten Americans’ who have been sidelined by the economic and social changes of the last few decades. And I think this story line is quite true — as far as it goes.

However, not many commentators or professionals are focusing on the underlying flaws in our modern American system and our American ‘character.’

Somehow, we Americans are very addiction-prone — perhaps due to our fragmented consumer culture and ongoing loss of community. Many of us feel isolated and alone. Plus, in the realm of addiction studies, it’s been found that these issues, along with underlying family issues, often presage the inner collapse that leads to deepening outer collapse (including severe addiction).

Frustration, despair, rage … and out-of-control capitalism

The thing is, people always become addicts for a reason; it never just ‘happens.’ And in the case of most of Trump’s devoted followers, there seem to be intense underlying frustration and deep feelings of despair and rage about their place in our society. Many believe they’re being ‘replaced’ by undeserving immigrant hordes.

All across the U.S., there’s plenty of desperation ‘in the air’ — an out-of-control, massively unfair capitalist system will do that to you — BUT … why in hell follow a (supposed) billionaire capitalist who will only make your life, your community, your society, and your planet much, much worse? (Of course, his followers never see it that way; some even believe he is literally our ‘savior’!)

Well, to employ a truism — of course addiction (including Trump-addiction) doesn’t make much sense … because it inevitably leads to life-damaging consequences. Thus addiction — despite always having its underlying cause(s) — is totally irrational.

It’s pure self-sabotage and self-destruction.

What really energizes Trump’s massive following?

With all this background information in mind, let’s look at some of the underlying reasons or patterns that energize/support Trump’s huge, heavily-addicted following.

I’m going to utilize the aforementioned characteristics of addiction, along with references to Trump’s behavior and character, as my framework here.

* Escalating loss of control: Trump is famous (or infamous) for his narcissism, impetuousness, anger, and paranoia. When he was president, many staffers and politicians complained — a lot — about his lack of discipline, short attention span, and constant mind-changing. Trump’s speeches and rants are unrestrained eruptions of his cruel, misogynist, and racist ‘id’ — and thus he models and gives overt permission for his followers to do the same, and let their racism, cruelty, misogyny, and hatred spew forth into the world.

Trump is addicted to anger, paranoia, revenge, and hate — and his followers soon become similarly addicted.

* Self-deception: Trump is also famous (or infamous) for constantly creating his own ‘alternate reality’ and denying truths or facts that don’t fit his personal needs or desires. His narcissism is so deep and intense that he can’t stand to be challenged, and forcefully rejects or avoids any criticism or factual information that isn’t to his liking. Thus, he constantly spins a web of illusion and self-deception, and totally believes — and is fully committed to — his own avoidant, deceptive ‘spin’ on both his personal and our social realities (such as the Big Lie that the 2020 election was totally fraudulent and he ‘really’ won!). Trump is a master of illusion and is completely enmeshed in deliberate self-deception.

Of course, this rubs off on his followers, and propels them forcefully into ongoing self-deception. In order to believe and follow Trump, one has to put on major ‘blinders’ and practice and embrace complete self-deception. We could even say, one has to become willingly addicted to total self-deception.

* Lying to others: Trump is also infamous for his almost constant lying. While he was president, harried fact-checkers could barely keep up with the frantic pace of his lies, and by the end of his term his known lies and half-truths numbered over 30,000! And since he left office, he’s probably added another 10–15,000 to that total. So, it’s fair to label Trump a “pathological liar,” since he exactly fits the textbook definition. The question is, why do his followers so easily accept or even embrace all his lying?

The frightening conclusion I’ve reached is not that they approve of lying, or stupidly believe all his lies. It’s also not just that he’s always telling them exactly what they want to hear. Rather, I think Americans have been lied to so much, for so long — by corporations, advertising, our own government, Fox ‘News,’ the ‘elites,’ etc. — that they now expect to be lied to, and have been groomed to accept lies and lying as ‘normal.’ Trump is personally completely addicted to lying — and through constant exposure his followers have likewise become totally addicted to his pattern of lying, and to his lies themselves. His endless lies become … their truths.

* Escalating ‘need’ for the drug, substance, relationship, or thing one is addicted to: Clearly, Trump is heavily addicted to fame, power, and the limelight. As a publicity hound and former reality-TV star, he knows how to grab public attention and get his name and statements in the media. His shameless attention-grabbing tactics seem to mesmerize and delight most of his followers, so it’s safe to say that they are living vicariously through Trump, and are getting a lot of personal gratification and pleasure from his attention-grabbing public misdeeds.

Put differently, they have gotten addicted to the emotional satisfaction they feel when he ‘sticks it to the man,’ insults other public figures, attacks the ‘libtards,’ acts in vile, despicable ways towards women, or abuses our military veterans. His rageful abusiveness first forms, and then feeds, their dangerous addiction to him. Plus, all of these Trumpian actions help fuel their anger addiction.

* Ever-increasing undermining of one’s daily life and healthy routines: Since Trump’s acting out and lying fit hand-in-glove with Fox ‘News’ and Newsmax programming — and since most Trump devotees are avid Fox and Newsmax consumers — these folks are receiving continuous mental and emotional ‘brainwashing’… and thus end up increasingly out of touch with reality. As many millions of family members have learned, to their horror, this extensive brainwashing makes these folks almost impossible to communicate with or ‘reach.’

Often, the most extreme Trump devotees and/or Fox addicts become alienated from their families, coworkers, friends, and even marital or other relationship partners. Their Trump/Fox addiction and militant, aggressive beliefs push people away, and eventually totally undermine the quality of their lives.

Here as well, ‘politicized’ anger addiction has grave, deeply life-damaging consequences.

The horrific ‘end game’ of Trump/anger addiction

Eventual collapse or even death: The final phase or end result of addiction is systemic collapse or death — and is obviously super-dangerous. But in this case, the danger is more to society as a whole, and not so much the individuals involved — though they too are deeply and horribly affected.

The truth is, Trump and anger addiction — especially when combined — are extremely dangerous to both individual and societal mental health. Plus, there have been several instances when loyal Trump followers did noxious things like storming the U.S. Capitol or attacking an FBI office — and were shot and killed. There were also hundreds of thousands of Americans who were horribly misled by Trump and the GOP during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ended up resisting vaccines and masking … and then died.

So yes, Trump addiction is deadly — on many levels. But most of the ‘deaths’ caused by Trump addiction are not bodily deaths, they are psychological and societal ‘deaths.’ (Though that may soon change; the 2024 election may bring out the rage and violence in these folks, and some may well become actual murderers, inflicting physical death on their political ‘enemies.’)

Scarily, addiction is always a progressive process, and unless that process is stopped it will progress to its inevitable conclusion. In the case of Trump-addiction and Fox-addiction, several terrible end results are already apparent. A major one is the death of trust in our media and news organizations, the death of ‘truth,’ and the rise of ‘fake news’ and endless partisan propaganda. This IS a sort of death — and heralds the imminent death of our ‘liberal democracy.’

Another is the rise of intense rage, racism, and violence as supposed ‘solutions’ to our problems. Under this sort of emotional pressure (which feels like an overheated emotional pressure-cooker about to explode), society itself starts to shatter, collapse, and die — and soon our most basic social or political interactions (such as voting) are tainted and become ugly, hateful, and then violent.

All this is a direct result of the loss of self-responsibility and rationality that occurs with addiction — and when it becomes a society-wide ‘politicized’ process, as it has in the U.S., that society probably doesn’t have long to live.

As one of the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “That Smell” goes, “You fool, you … Ooh, ooh, that smell — the smell of death surrounds you.”

RIP, U.S.A.

Trump cult, Trump addiction, or BOTH: either way, the result is mass insanity and destruction

Some people call Trump’s MAGA movement a cult. I liken it to a life-threatening addiction — which is deeply threatening the life of our entire society.

But really, both explanations are useful and accurate. Also, both things can be true simultaneously, since there’s no conflict between these views — at all.

Yes, we’re talking about a very dangerous cult.

Yes, we’re talking about a very dangerous society-wide addiction.

Cult, addiction — in this case, it’s all the same terrible, destructive process. The Trump cult IS a dangerous addiction — and the Trump/anger addicts are members of a very dangerous cult.

Either way — or rather, both ways — they’re stuck on a fast track to willful destruction. And we can’t let them take us all down with them.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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