{"id":740,"date":"2026-05-05T14:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewaywesee.com\/understanddjt\/?page_id=740"},"modified":"2026-05-05T14:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:55:23","slug":"fear-of-shame-explains-a-lot-about-trump-and-his-followers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thewaywesee.com\/understanddjt\/fear-of-being-shamed-explains-a-lot-about-mr-trump\/fear-of-shame-explains-a-lot-about-trump-and-his-followers\/","title":{"rendered":"FEAR OF SHAME EXPLAINS A LOT ABOUT TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is reasonable to speculate that most of President Trump’s followers share some or all of his many fears. The one fear they categorically share is the fear of shame. If they didn’t feel deep shame, they would not be followers.<\/p>\n

Americans on both the right and left must understand that Trump’s followers are fused with his identity and are driven by fears and shame that they have in common. MAGA loyalty (i.e. identity fusion) <\/a>to Trump is the unique psychological glue that explains Trump’s power.<\/span><\/p>\n

MAGA supporters who have not learned how to successfully avoid dealing constructively with their own shame find Trump to be an attractive source of comfort because he helps them avoid feeling their shame rather than work through it. Here are the psychological ways he does that:<\/span><\/p>\n

He offers a\u00a0shame shield<\/span>: When Trump relentlessly positions himself as the main victim of \u201celites,\u201d the media, and \u201cthe system,\u201d he invites supporters to fuse their identity with his, so that any criticism of him feels like an attack on them personally. In doing this, he absorbs and reframes what might otherwise feel like their own personal shame or failure into a story of persecution and grievance by hostile outsiders. Instead of facing painful questions like \u201cWhat did I do wrong?\u201d or \u201cWhere have I fallen short?\u201d, followers are encouraged to experience those emotions as evidence that they\u2014and he\u2014are being unfairly targeted, which short-circuits genuine self-reflection.\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n

He turns shame into blame<\/span>: Feelings of failure, humiliation, or loss of status are reframed as someone else\u2019s fault\u2014immigrants, coastal elites, \u201cthe deep state\u201d\u2014which converts painful self-directed shame into energizing anger at out-groups.\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n

He normalizes \u201cshamelessness\u201d<\/span>: His open boasting, rule-breaking, and refusal to apologize model a way of living without visible shame, guilt or humility, comforts people who are overwhelmed by their own unprocessed shame. They long to feel untouchable and above shame like Trump appears to be.<\/p>\n

He offers belonging and visibility:\u00a0<\/span>Trump\u2019s political appeal is often described by scholars and journalists as rooted less in concrete policy proposals and more in emotional dynamics of identity, repair, and shame relief among his supporters. In this rhetorical framework, he functions symbolically as someone who tells a stigmatized or culturally devalued group that they are seen, that their grievances are justified, and that they need not feel ashamed of how they live, what they look like, how they speak, or what they believe.\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of \u201cidentity repair\u201d comes from research on emotions in social movements: people who feel looked down on, stigmatized, or \u201cleft behind\u201d seek leaders and narratives that convert humiliation and shame into pride and\/or righteous anger. When Trump tells his supporters that tey are patriotic Americans who are unfairly attacked by elite liberals, he offers a kind of emotional shelter in which negative feelings about social status, shame or failure can be blamed on others. He says \u201cthey\u201d are to blame for your shame, not \u201cyou.\u201d This is what \u201cshame relief\u201d points to: instead of helping people work through shame by self-reflection, the leader invites them to disown it and redirect it toward enemies, critics, and scapegoated out-groups<\/p>\n

For people who have long felt humiliated, sidelined, or culturally looked down on, his message functions like a moral promotion: \u201cYou are not the problem; you are the backbone of the country.\u201d When he calls them that they are the \u201creal Americans\u201d and portrays them as victims of corrupt elites, coastal cosmopolitans, or racial \u201cothers,\u201d he flips the script from \u201cI am failing\u201d to \u201cI am being wronged,\u201d which feels far more bearable.<\/p>\n

Trump’s rhetoric does two things at once.<\/p>\n