‘It’s a Cult’: Trump Raked Over the Coals for Bizarre Pledge as He Closed Out Midterm Convention

President Donald Trump’s bizarre decision to lead the Republican midterm convention crowd in a pledge of allegiance to himself drew a remarkably consistent verdict from critics Thursday night – “cult.”

Trump instructed attendees to raise their right hands during his sprawling speech and repeat a pledge beginning, “To the greatest president in the history of the United States,” before having them swear to vote in November’s midterm elections and to “try to cheat like hell like they do.”

The extraordinary scene quickly ricocheted across social media, where critics seized on the imagery of a convention hall full of MAGA Republicans raising their hands and repeating Trump’s words.

UnHerd’s U.S. editor Sohrab Ahmari offered perhaps the most cutting description of the spectacle, comparing the president’s stunt to the kind seen under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Mar-a-Lago Ba’athism,” he wrote.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, argued Trump had replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with a pledge to himself and framing November’s choice as “America or Trump.”

The spectacle, however, prompted a chorus of critics who reached for the same word to describe it:

Commentator Brad Polumbo, rather than joining the “cult” retorts, reacted with disbelief:

Others were equally stunned:

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols compared the spectacle to comedian Steve Martin’s old “Non-Conformist Oath” routine, in which an audience blindly repeats a pledge until the joke reveals that their conformity is itself the punchline.

The difference, Nichols noted, was that Martin’s audience eventually got the joke:

Throughout his speech closing out the event, Trump repeatedly warned the crowd that Democrats would “destroy everything we’ve built” if Republicans lose control in November and urged supporters to behave as though he personally were on the ballot.

“So on Election Day, November 3, you’ve got to do me a favor. You’ve got to get out and vote, and you’ve got to pretend I’m on the ballot because in a way, I am on the ballot,” Trump said.

During the pledge, Trump also told supporters, “I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell like they do,” before eventually leading the audience in “So help me God.”

Trump then offered a final, gloomy incentive to vote: “You know what happens if you don’t vote right? You go to hell, you know that. You go to hell. And I don’t want that to happen to you, so please go and vote!”

The crowd responded by chanting: “Vote! Vote!”

Watch above via Fox News.

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