JD: "Hail Mary," "historical aberration," "Dear Leader," "good faith" and Other WordsTM!
What is even the point of this sentence?It means your post is only stringing together buzzy words and phrases (calibrated to feed red avatar histrionics, btw) without actually saying anything. "Obvious facts" do not have to be stated as such.
Celebrity is nothing new in the White House. Every president in the modern era has possessed something of a popular following, and in every case the most partisan or extreme elements have taken it to cringy levels bordering on obsession.
President Obama was lauded for reading mean tweets on Kimmel and being interviewed by YouTube stars who bathe in tubs full of cereal. This is not how a serious person comports themselves.
So now you're going to pretend that you think people call Trumpism a cult because Trump goes on talk shows? Please. You know perfectly well why that label is applied, and it's not because of garden-variety celebrification of a politician. I'm sure you're capable of being intellectually honest on this issue, so either address it like an adult or don't bother.
Trump's appeal stems from his public willingness to say things that many of his supporters are already thinking. That isn't a cult of personality; it's the expected popularity of a politician who eschews political correctness and the prevailing pro-establishment milieu. To suggest Trump has a cult following risks mystifying the appeal of authoritarians and other strongmen. In reality, these types of leaders mostly rise to and maintain power through channels of persuasion and communication like normal politicians do.
What we're left with is a 21st-century celebrity president with a roughly equal share of fans and detractors. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did more to create this archetype than anybody else; Trump's unconventional persona and election is only the complete realization of it.
