The first step when running  a racket is to “manufacture the threat”. Listen to Trump’s racket:

• “Our country is being lost: we’re a failing nation.”
• “Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world.”
• “We are substantially subsidizing the Militaries of many VERY rich countries all over the world, while at the same time these countries take total advantage of the U.S. on trade.”
• “They [other countries] have taken their criminals off the street and put them into our country.”
• “In Springfield, they [the immigrants] are eating the dogs and cats.”

The second step is to position yourself as a savior. More quotes from Trump:

• “It’s a great thing when you can show that you’ve been successful and that you’ve made a lot of money and that you’ve employed a lot of people….”
• “…part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich. So if I need $600 million, I can put $600 million in myself. I must tell you, that’s a huge advantage over the other candidates.”
• “I guarantee you my IQ is much higher than theirs….”
• “We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”
• “ I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.”
• “People love me. And you know what, I have been very successful. Everybody loves me. Everyone loves me.”
• “China’s paying for those tariffs.”
• “I have a very, very good relationship with Putin.”
• “I got along with him great.” [when asked by Sean Hannity about his relationship with Kim Jong-un in March 2023]

Consider what he’s saying here. Trump is claiming his business acumen and track record qualifies him for presidency again. And yet, here is a man who claimed large losses before and during his previous presidency on his tax returns. A man who has confessed to business links with organized crime and a penchant for “good relationships” with authoritarian dictators. A man who has had six of his hotel and casino businesses file for Chapter 11 bankruptcies. A man already convicted of fraud and rape and mired in hundreds of millions of dollars of legal judgments and attorney fees. A leader who has perpetuated the Big Lie that he won the 2020 election when, in fact, he lost to President Biden, who has been ruling the country ever since. And, as of the September 10th debate this year, he has confessed he has a “concept, but no plan” of what he’s going to do to solve the problems/threats he professes are real, in spite of ample data to the contrary.

A second term as president for this self-professed “dictator-on-day-one” would rip away the foundations of U.S. democracy and steal the democratic future from our children. Americans would lose their freedoms, their reputation and credibility in the world, even their economic standing and natural environment. The costs of being conned by Trump (again) would likely be astronomical.

Most of us have been victims of this man’s con. There is a maxim that says all that’s required for evil to prevail is for good men and women to do nothing. Another way of saying this is that if you are a spectator, you are as culpable as those participating in this con game. Yes, it’s embarrassing. It involves admitting that:

1. We’ve been outsmarted.
2. We were foolish.
3. Hope, greed, or both got the better of us.
4. We were captured under the spell of a con artist’s spiel,
5. We were deceived into believing that his promises would address or resolve our grievances, fears, or resentments.

This brings us back to a question asked in a previous post:

“How can so many still support Trump?”

Two dynamics could account for why Trump’s base seems so dug in.

First, MAGA members and supporters cannot easily change allegiances without admitting that they were conned. One explanation why so many in the MAGA universe blindly support the ex-president, regardless of what he does or says, is that they’ve been seduced by him, for whatever reason, ever since the famous golden escalator speech announcing his run for President in 2015. It’s not an overstatement to see MAGA as a personality cult.

Second, MAGA adherents have been consistently attacked, rebuked, mocked and, more or less, isolated by progressive voters and many in the general population since Trump became POTUS. Even though many of the grievances and concerns of Trump’s followers may be legitimate, it is the disdain and spurning of the MAGA movement that makes MAGA members and supporters defensive. This has resulted in intense polarization between the Left and Right and much of the current intractable struggles between the parties. There is another maxim that says you get what you resist. In other words, the more you push against someone or something, the more they or it will push back. (Think of what happens when two sumo wrestlers engage.) Those of us who push back against MAGA are part of a counter-movement that perpetuates MAGA’s existence through our resistance. Those of us who resist being conned, for example, are likely more vulnerable to being conned, in part because, at some point, we lose the ability to think critically, along with our confidence in our own judgment.

What’s the best way to relate to a person who has been conned?

No one is immune from being conned. Often the most thoughtful, confident, and intelligent people make the best targets for someone offering a future that seems to be a break from the familiar, predictable, disempowering and, sometimes, boring drift of the status quo.

Anyone who has a friend or relative who is a MAGA member or supporter can appreciate what I’m talking about. It is as if their loved one is trapped in a cult. It is almost impossible to penetrate their absolute certainty that what they believe is true, even if what they believe includes unhinged conspiracy theories. Reasoning, facts, not even a balanced contrary view can get through such blind loyalty and collective denial. Nothing you can do or say will change the MAGA follower’s mind, primarily because there is an emotional connection to the personality and promises of the cult’s guru (in the case of Trump, the cult’s con man).

When it comes to relating to anyone who has been conned by Trump and the MAGA mystique, the best thing you can do is to let them alone and give them the space to “be”. Be clear about where you stand and be clear what your boundaries are. Try to relate to them with compassion. Anything else you might do will likely produce more resistance.

This compassion is not easy.

Sometimes the best you can do is notice when and where your anger, frustration, and annoyance are bigger than your capacity for compassion. This will, at a minimum, shift how you are relating to the other person. Sometimes it can open the possibility of a less emotional dialogue anchored in your relationship with each other. When you are present to your relationship, especially if you care about each other, your differences and the issues often ‘soften’. Finding common ground then becomes possible. Agreeing to disagree—without having to attack the other person’s views or make them wrong for having their point of view—also becomes possible.

The real challenge is to be conscious, aware, and responsible for how your lack of compassion continues to keep you apart. Until we can stand in each other’s shoes, there is very little possibility that the MAGA “mega con” can be resolved anywhere other than at the ballot box.

Even then, if Kamala wins, we must still deal with Trump, the conman, and his follower’s false claims of ‘foul’. We will probably have to listen to the same false victim narratives they used in 2020 being repeated all over again. However, in time, we can only hope that Trump and his hold on his devotees will disappear into nameless history, just like the pied piper of Hamelin, to become another lesson in the story that is America.

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Originally published September 20, 2024 on Jim Selman’s Substack “At the Crossroads”