Comey is exactly right about Trump being like a mob boss (actually, a cult leader)

Comey is exactly right about Trump being like a mob boss

By David Love
"David A. Love writes for thegrio.com, a website dedicated to covering news in the African-American community. He is a writer and commentator based in Philadelphia. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidALove. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. "

(CNN)In his new book, "A Higher Loyalty," former FBI Director James Comey characterized President Donald Trump as a Mafia kingpin who has a warped notion of loyalty and utter disdain for the rule of law, and views the FBI as his personal investigative service. "The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth," Comey wrote.

Demanding complete loyalty from subordinates, exerting absolute control and caring only about his own needs and interests, Donald Trump behaves like a mob boss rather than a democratic leader. Mob bosses are also a form of cult leadership. As a raging narcissist and a charismatic leader who claims to know everything and have all the answers, Donald Trump displays many classic and stereotypical characteristics of a cult leader. Cults are known for overzealous and unquestioning commitment to the person in charge. An authoritarian who has even been compared to Stalin, Trump, the self-proclaimed "stable genius," demands loyalty and effusive praise from his underlings, as his bizarrely cringeworthy Cabinet meetings have demonstrated.

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Amid glaringly narrow public approval, the current President is flanked by his base -- the Christian right, the NRA, Fox News and Infowars, white nationalists, tax cutters and kleptocrats. White evangelicals defend Trump, ignoring the allegations of sexual assault, extramarital affairs and payoffs to porn stars. Franklin Graham declared Trump stopped sinning when he became president, while Jerry Falwell, Jr. claimed Jesus "never told Caesar how to run Rome."
His black supporters notwithstanding, Trump seems to preside over a white cult that feeds off white resentment and alienation after the civil rights movement, and must undo the legacy of the first black president

The polarizing "us-versus-them" mentality, and the sinister beliefs associated with cults, are abundant in Trump. Under the slogans "Make America Great Again," Trump has promised to return the country to a mythical heyday for white America. Presumably that would be a return to the 1950s when the economy was booming and America dominated the world. But that was also before the modern civil rights era, at a time of legal Jim Crow segregation against black people, blatant sexism and homophobia, and anti-communist witch hunts. Restoring this glorious place has brought on what Trump seems to view as enemies -- whether it's the news media, or kneeling black football players or Muslims.

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/opinions/comey-right-about-trump-opinion-love/index.html