This essay, by Bret St

There’s a saying among cult experts: Nobody ever joins a cult.

Of course, people join what, to outsiders, certainly appear to be cults — the Branch Davidians, the Moonies, the Peoples Temple and so on. But these groups never describe themselves as cults, and they don’t necessarily understand themselves that way, either.

Usually, they claim to be religious or spiritual movements, personal-development or leadership training organizations, and so on. Keith Raniere of NXIVM offered his members “executive success programs.” What the rest of the world eventually saw was a sex cult.

Americans may someday come to understand Donald Trump as the most successful cult leader of our times. The question is whether the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol can begin to steer some of the Trump faithful toward the kind of cult deprogramming they so desperately need.

I’m starting to think it might, if not with his most fervent loyalists, then at least with a critical mass of his voters.