‘Cult’: Poll finds Trump-supporting GOPers who believe he committed crimes outnumbers all DeSantis 2024 voters

A new New York Times/Siena College poll finds that even after two criminal indictments and ahead of possibly two more, Donald Trump is "dominating" the entire GOP presidential primary field, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis "by a landslide 37 percentage points." Trump, the poll shows, currently has the majority of likely Republican primary voters. Some experts point to "racial anxiety" and "GOP hostility to changing gender roles," some to "the loss of white straight male privilege," and some are calling it a "cult."

"Mr. Trump held decisive advantages across almost every demographic group and region and in every ideological wing of the party, the survey found, as Republican voters waved away concerns about his escalating legal jeopardy," The Times' Shane Goldmacher reports. "He led by wide margins among men and women, younger and older voters, moderates and conservatives, those who went to college and those who didn’t, and in cities, suburbs and rural areas."

Calling the results "ominous" for the Florida governor, the Times reports the "poll shows that some of Mr. DeSantis’s central campaign arguments — that he is more electable than Mr. Trump, and that he would govern more effectively — have so far failed to break through. Even Republicans motivated by the type of issues that have fueled Mr. DeSantis’s rise, such as fighting 'radical woke ideology,' favored the former president."

Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor for the Atlantic and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, weighed in on the poll, writing: "This comes as no surprise, but it is still stunning. Republicans in the country lineup behind a serial grifter, liar and narcissistic sociopath, inciter of a violent insurrection and obstructor of justice. Cult to the max."

The Times also quoted several Trump supporters, including a 69-year old retail manager in New Hampshire, whose remarks have spread across social media.

“He might say mean things and make all the men cry because all the men are wearing your wife’s underpants and you can’t be a man anymore,” David Green said of Trump. “You got to be a little sissy and cry about everything. But at the end of the day, you want results. Donald Trump’s my guy. He’s proved it on a national level.”

Senior CNN political analyst Ronald Brownstein, pointing to that quote, notes: "Reminder that Trump taps not just racial anxiety but GOP hostility to changing gender roles."

Sirius XM host Michelangelo Signorile says the David Green quote "really says it all about the MAGA male voter, grieving the loss of white straight male privilege."

Calling it "truly grotesque," independent American journalist based in Europe, Chris O'Brien says, "Trump is only a reflection of a vast machine pushing a war around gender and identity that has infected the US and the UK."

Other aspects of the Times report also garnered attention from political experts, like Daniel Nichanian, Editor-in-chief and founder of Bolts magazine, which reports "on the local elections and obscure institutions that shape public policy but are dangerously overlooked, and the grassroots movements that are targeting them."

Nichanian writes, "the line that stood out in the new GOP poll: 'Mr. Trump still received 22 percent among voters who believe he has committed serious federal crimes — a greater share than the 17 percent that Mr. DeSantis earned from the entire G.O.P. electorate.'"

Pointing to the Times' summation of Trump carrying "almost every demographic group and region and in every ideological wing of the party," Boston Globe opinion columnist Renée Graham observes, "White supremacy is a hell of a drug."

And Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid says simply, "It's a cult."

Not everyone focused on Donald Trump, however.

"Wow. This poll shows that a liar, a sociopath, a huckster, a hypocrite, a charlatan, and a criminal get about 30 percent of the Republican vote. Everyone else supports Donald Trump," wrote historian Moshik Temkin, an associate professor of history and public policy at Harvard's Center for European Studies.

Beyond Politics podcast host Matt Robison, a public policy expert and former chief of staff and legislative director for three members of Congress sums up the Times poll, saying: "Reminds me of the seminal 1950s study from Leon Festinger 'When Prophecies Fail.' Where the term 'cognitive dissonance' came from. Cult members cannot abide any evidence that might disapprove their fanaticism. Their response is to simply double down. And here we are."