So you're saying it isn't a cult?

The evidence mounts.

(Donald Trump)

Allow me to share two anecdotes about support for Donald Trump I came across in the last few days.

The first comes from Sarah Longwell, a prominent voice in the Never Trump movement and a founder of The Bulwark. Here’s her tweet from earlier this week:

The second comes from political reporter Ben Jacobs, who tweeted this:

I have been thinking a lot about these two voters over the past few days. Especially in light of the massive recent hubbub caused by Nikki Haley refusing to say that slavery was the cause of the Civil War.

To be clear: This was a major gaffe by Haley. There’s no doubt that it cost her at least some momentum in the race. And probably some voters who were as baffled as I was that she was unable to answer a pretty basic question.

This is how normal political campaigns (and candidates) work. You spend as much time as possible building your support through policies and politics. You try like hell to avoid pissing off voters — or saying or doing things that lead them to question whether they support you.

Usually the candidate who make the fewest major mistakes — and alienates the fewest voters — wins. Duh. Politics is about addition, not subtraction.

But that is NOT what we are dealing with when we talk about Donald Trump and, more importantly, the people who support him.

These are not people who are debating whether they should be on the Trump train. They are on — no matter what. There isn’t a policy position Trump could stake out (lord knows he’s tried) that would repel them. There’s not a bad answer he could give that would make them rethink their support. There’s nothing — short of murder! — that would make them rethink their backing for Trump.

Trump understood this — better and earlier — than the rest of us. In January 2016, at a campaign stop in Iowa, Trump uttered this proclamation: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”

I remember — distinctly — rolling my eyes when I heard it. Who does this guy think he is, I thought to myself. Does he think the political rules of gravity don’t apply to him???

Little did I know, Trump was right. And, honestly, I should have seen it coming.

Here’s why: There was AMPLE evidence — even early on in his candidacy — that Trump’s appeal to voters was different, in kind, than any other politician I had ever seen or covered.

The example that stands out to me most is when Trump was in Arizona in July of 2015 — just weeks after he had announced his first presidential candidacy.

Asked about John McCain, a war hero and, at the time, one of the state’s sitting senators, Trump said this: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

In the lede of their story on the incident, Politico wrote: “Donald Trump may finally have crossed a line.”

I thought the same thing (as did every one else in the political world). Surely attacking someone who spent years in a Vietnamese prison camp — especially given Trump’s decided lack of military service — would be a bridge too far for most Republican voters who were just getting to know Trump.

NOPE! Quite the opposite. Trump never apologized. In fact, over the intervening months, he doubled and tripled down on his criticism of McCain. And Republican voters loved him for it.

Over and over again during the next 7 years, Trump has said and done things — like the criticism of McCain — that would have killed off an ordinary politician.

But, here he stands — not just alive but thriving, the clear leader in the race for the Republican nomination and a slight favorite to be the next president of the United States.

The Trump people — and Republicans more generally — are resistant to labeling the support for Trump as cult-ish. (Cults don’t exactly have a good rep in our culture!)

But, to me, it’s the only way to really understand how Trump can say and do ANYTHING and not lose support.

How a woman in Iowa could say that unless Trump murdered someone, she would be for him.

How only video of Trump kicking a baby would sway another one away from backing him.

How someone who has changed positions (and parties) as much as Trump could still be seen as a beloved figure within the GOP.

How a thrice-married man with, um, a questionable grasp of religion could be a hero of evangelical conservatives.

NONE of it makes ANY sense unless you think of what Trump has built as a cult of personality. His supporters don’t believe in the Republican party. Or any specific set of policies or principles. They believe in him. Whatever he does is the right thing. Whatever he hates is worthy of their derision. There is nothing beyond that.

That’s why, I think, the idea that the 2024 Republican primary was ever going to be competitive was a misread of where the party is at the moment. People who worship an individual — as Trump supporters do him — don’t want to hear arguments about electability or age or anything else. They don’t want to hear any criticism of their guy. And even if they do hear it, it doesn’t change their minds.

This was never a race. It was (and is) a coronation — of a man that Republican voters view as their king. And who, not for nothing, acts like one.