MAGA and the Cult of Adolescent Power: A Threat to Democracy

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Podcast 132

By Jackalyn Rainosek, PhD

The Toxic Masculinity of Trump’s Leadership

I intend to present a great article at the end of this podcast that will describes the insanity we are living through, which is at his core, Trump is an adolescent president, surrounded by adolescent flunkies, who cheer him on and helped him to get into office by adolescent men.

I feel grateful that my son is nothing like any of these men, since he values our democracy, fights for the rights of other human beings, values difference in people, and makes mature and discerning decisions in his personal and professional life. He has ethics and he is a man with integrity with a foundation of values that support honesty, and leadership that appreciates and respects others.

Tragically, corrupt, immature, hateful President Trump has every behavior of an adolescent male. He wants more of anything whether it is money, women, power, or adoration and if you are an enemy of Trump then you are someone to eliminate. Now, let me stop for a moment and say that I have many men that are young and have no interest in what MAGA Republican men represent, and they DID NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP.

Our weeks are filled with so much insane behavior by Trump, his justice department or any other area he controls. Lets be factual about what he is doing.

  • Trump is the most corrupt President we have ever had. I know about Grant, Harding and some actions taken by various presidents. None of them have created the conflicts of interest that are in the law to prevent presidents from being bribed, gifted or the president’s friends and family members benefit from his being president LIKE WHAT TRUMP HAS DOING AND IS DOING EVERY DAY. I plan on writing an entire podcast about the multiplicity of Trump’s corrupt actions. I have named some of them in previous podcasts.

You all know from a podcast that while the stock market was sinking due to his tariffs, he was at his golf course with many men from various countries. Today, The New York Times has announced that Trump plans to accept a “Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One.” It is the biggest foreign gift every received by the U.S. President and our government. This is such an unethical action since Trump intends to use this plane while he is president and also after he leaves office. You can easily look this up on the internet.

  • In The Washington Post May 9, 2025, by Jacob Bogage is the article, “Even with DOGE cuts, the U.S. has spent $166 billion more than last year.” “Defense and immigration spending and continued strain on Social Security and Medicare have added $196 billion to the deficit in the fiscal year so far.” As the article points out it is due to Trump’s agenda for his first 100 days. Imagine what we could do with the money spent on sending immigrants to other countries since Trump hates certain immigrants and has scared Americans into believing that immigrants are dangerousness. We know the stories of many people that are not criminals that are in El Salvado or will soon be sent to other countries.

Now if you are from South Africa where Musk grew up then you get to come to America. Read the newsletter by The Washington Post on Friday, May 9, 2025, 12:29 PM entitled “About 60 White South Africans expected to arrive at Dulles Airport next week as refugees under Trump executive order.” “The Afrikaners are expected to arrive on a State Department-chartered plan Monday, with federal and Virginia officials preparing to receive them in a ceremonial news conference, according to documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post, as well as three government officials familiar with the preparation.” This is a perfect example of a president saying that if you are White, you are acceptable, and particularly if you come from a country where my friend, Musk, grew up and lived for years. Even though it is not being published, there is no question in my mind that all 60 of these people probably had to paid to come to the U.S. or he is so desperate to have more Whites that will vote for him he is bringing them in to benefit himself. It is not near as large as the Quatar plane; however, everyone pays to receive things from Trump. Don’t forget all the millionaires that paid to be at his inauguration or to not be punished by him.

  • Next, let’s go to Trump’s hate campaign that he spent extensive time talking about during the months he was running for office. His newest person he is attacking is Senator Mark Kelly. Senator Kelly is a Democratic Senator from the State of Arizona, and was an astronaut for the U.S. many years ago. There is a newsletter by Sen. Mark Kelly through info@e.kamalahjarris.com on Friday, May 9, 2025, at 11:16 AM to let us know what is happening to him. Here is what Mark tells us: “Turmp’s longtime political advisor, Roger Stone, just called for me to be charged with treason and executed. You hear me right.

I called out Trump for his blatant corruption—making million of dollars from his own crypto coins—and I co-sponsored a bill to make it illegal for the President, Vice President, administration officials, and members of Congress to do the same. In response, they sent Roger Stone after me. When I joined the Navy, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. I did it again when I was sworn in as Arizona’s United States Senator. I will continue to uphold that oath, and because it matters to our democracy. I will do everything I can to stop the blatant corruption in Washington.

Guys like Donald Trump and Roger Stone are only looking out for themselves. And it’s clear they’re scared of the attention we’re bringing to them and their corrupt deeds.  I’ll be honest with you, though. If Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and now Roger Stone are all lining up against me, it’s going to take a big team to fight back.

The message is noticeably clear. If they attack Mark Kelly they will attack anyone that prevents them from getting what they want, which is the destruction of our democracy, and terrorizing people so much they will forget they have freedom of speech in this country. If you think you are safe from their attacks, then you are sadly mistaken. Autocratic leaders will destroy their opposition to gain more power to do what they want.

  • “Federal judges are receiving unsolicited pizza deliveries they say are meant to intimidate them” in the newsletter from The Washington Post, May 11, 2025, 9:35 AM. “Many of the deliveries, judges say, have gone to those presiding over lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s policies. Deliveries began in February and may number in the hundreds across at least seven states, prompting increased security concerns and a demand for Justice Department to investigation.” The Justice Department is now headed and controlled by Trump’s supporters so they will not investigate. That is the reason we will have more corrupt acts and defiant acts from Trump and his supporters.
  • Here is more detail on Trump’s corruption by the Public Citizen <president@citizen.org, Thursday, May 8, 2025, 1:16 PM, “What does it all meme?” written by Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen. They begin with Trump’s statements on the campaign trail: “I don’t need anybody’s money.” “As you may recall, that’s what Donald Trump said when he announced his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015. (Yes, we are now a decade into this national nightmare.) He reiterated the idea — that he was already so rich that we would be impervious to financial temptations as president — over and over again.”
    “It was clearly never true. And Trump has debased the office of the president to enrich himself and his family to a degree so unprecedented and extreme that it might seem almost comical if it weren’t so nakedly corrupt.
  • Among the most flagrant grifts are the “meme coins” launched earlier this year by both Trump and his wife, Melania.
  • For background, “meme coins” are a type of cryptocurrency (digital-only money not backed by any government or bank) that have little to no intrinsic value aside from people simply being willing, or being hoodwinked, into spending money on them. The name originated in connection with internet memes (moderately humorous graphics that go viral online).
  • The Trump family has reportedly made at least $320 million from fees they “earn” when people trade their various cryptocurrencies.
  • Indeed, just this week, Trump doubled down on his solicitation for his “meme coin” venture (scam might be a better word), having previously offered tickets to a gala at one of his golf resorts to the 220 biggest “investors.”
  • Federal law forbids presidents from soliciting gifts. And, since issuing a “meme coin” is not a presidential act, Trump isn’t even covered by the absurd immunity provision the Supreme Court fashioned out of thin air last year.
  • Public Citizen has called for an investigation into Trump’s seemingly obvious violation of federal law barring the president from soliciting gifts.
  • We have also highlighted the egregious risk inherent in the fact that since Trump’s “meme coins” can be purchased anonymously, unknown actors — including potentially foreign governments — could, in essence, stuff cash into the president’s pockets.
  • Here’s what one of us (Lisa) told the national media: As is often the case with this administration, the corruption and scandal is happening out in the open, right in front of our eyes. The question now is what are our elected leaders going to do to stop it? Passing legislation to fight this corruption is a great place to start.’”
  • They are asking us to tell Congress: “Donald Trump is abusing the office of the president to enrich himself and his family, including via assorted crypto ventures and/or scams. Congress must pass legislation to clearly and definitively prohibit presidents, vice presidents, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, and the immediate family members of those people from issuing so-called digital assets such as “meme coins.”
  • In the Public Citizen newsletter president@citizen.org on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 12:56 PM is entitled, “Trump attacks Big Bird and Cookie Monster.” Last Thursday, Donald Trump took out his novelty-sized marker and scrawled his jagged signature on another stupid and legally baseless “executive order.” “This one claims to zero out federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
    Why is Trump — like so many Republicans before him — attacking NPR and PBS?
  • Because Trumpists are desperate to eliminate any source of objective news that honestly reports on the stupid, cruel, and illegal things the regime is doing.
  • Because Trumpists can’t stand how programs like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood teach kids that it is OK to have feelings and to be empathetic.
  • Because Trumpists know that a thriving, independent public media system — a bulwark of democracy — is fundamentally at odds with their project of autocracy, corruption, and power.
  • For decades, Republicans have been ranting about money going to NPR and PBS. Never mind that the amount of funding for public radio and television is not even a drop in the bucket of overall federal spending. And never mind that those same Republicans are — as we speak — actively plotting to increase the Pentagon’s budget by tens of billions of dollars.

It is important for you to read and fully understand the value of NPR and PBS in the article “Trump and many GOP lawmakers want to end all funding for NPR and PBS—unraveling a US public media system that took a century to build” published May 2, 2025, 8:43 am EDT by The Conversations authored by Josh Shepperd. You need to know the tremendous values that NPR and PBS offer Americans. Their programs are not MAGA Republican extremism and lies about what is happening in America. ”The CPB has already sued the Trump administration over its attempt to oust three of its board members. The CPB asserts that because it is an independent organization and not a federal agency, the federal government can’t dictate who serves on its board. Trump’s executive order will be challenged in court. And, as is the case with all executive orders, any future administration could rescind it. My question for you as a listener: Did you vote for Trump to use your money that is our federal government money the way he is using it? Did you agree to allow him to withhold money because he wants to destroy any organization that does not adhere to Trump’s view of who or what is acceptable or not? Trump wants one sick and destructive message and that is his and the MAGA message that supports corruption, and extreme points of view.

The Dangers of Adolescent Power in Politics and Governance

I read this article on February 26, 2025, that was published at 6 AM ET by The Atlantic entitled “The Adolescent Style in American Politics” by Jill Filipovic with a subtitle “The version of manhood placed on display by Trump and his aides is the one imagined by teenage boys.” When I read this article, I thought the day will come when it will be important to share with my podcast listeners. It describes what happened and where we are today with Trump, his administration, his control of the Congress and progressively every agency in our federal government.

Here is some of what this article offers: “To a certain kind of guy, Donald Trump epitomizes masculine cool. He’s ostentatiously wealthy. He’s married to his third model wife. He gets prime seats at UFC fights, goes on popular podcasts, and does more or less whatever he wants without consequences.

That certain kind of guy who sees Trump as a masculine ideal. That guy is a teenage boy.

Much has been written about Trump’s widening appeal to men, and to young men in particular. MAGA, the story goes, is making masculinity great again. But the version of manhood on display not just from Trump but from many of his closest advisers and appointees isn’t the kind of traditional manhood championed by” men that are mature, and discerning men who care about people and the world we live in. “Although of course, plenty of adolescent boys do not look up to Trump. At his core, Trump is an adolescent president, surrounded by adolescent flunkies, cheered into office by adolescent men.”

“Lawrence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University and widely recognized expert on adolescent development, explained adolescence to me as ‘a developmental mismatch between the development of the brain systems that are used for self-control and self-regulation, and the development of the brain systems that respond to reward and that generate emotions and perhaps leads to impulsive behavior.’ In the MAGA movement, though, an adolescent way of moving through the world—high-risk, low-regulation, near-total disinhibition—characterizes leaders and thrills followers.”

“In the United States, manhood in a traditional sense has been distinguished from boyhood and adolescence partly by virtue and obligation: Boys may be boys and teenagers may run around thrill-seeking, but real men are expected to provide for themselves and their families, protect those they love, and demonstrate a kind of moral fortitude that justifies their familial and social authority.”

“There are all kinds of problems with this traditional model, and feminists like myself are among the first to point them out. The masculinity of MAGA, though, is far worse: It rejects commitment and virtue, but still demands power and respect—it is, as Jamelle Bouie put it in The New York Times, “the masculinity of someone unburdened by duty, obligation or real responsibility.”

Filipovic give the example of “Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed as defense secretary by the narrowest margin in history, says he wants a military full of men who are uninhibited ‘warriors,’ free of any attempt to impose moral order on the teen and 20-something men who generally do the nation’s fighting. He evinces a similar lack of continence in his personal life. Hegseth is currently married to the woman he impregnated while still married to his second wife, who herself was the mistress he married after cheating on his first wife. Life is complicated, and marriage is more complicated still. But a series of extramarital affairs—something that also characterizes the president’s personal life—is not typically the mark of a respectable, responsible adult man.”

“Elon Musk, a keyboard warrior more than hardened soldier, is cut from similar cloth. He, too, has fathered many children with many different women. And he, too, seeks power without responsibility. Arrogance is one word for this; delusion is perhaps another. His effort has so far been an abject disaster. But it’s easy to see a teenager’s bravado in his actions—the lack of self-control and self-awareness, the inability to grasp what one may be incapable of doing. Musk is notorious for sharing edgelord memes on X, the kinds of things that might be passed around by teenage boys. He also has a remarkably juvenile sense of humor.”

“As these psychologically adolescent men work together, they fuel one another’s worst impulses. Much of Steinberg’s work is research on juvenile offenders; adolescent boys and young men, according to crime statistics, commit a hugely disproportionate number of crimes. ‘And they commit their crimes in groups, disproportionately,’ Steinberg said. ‘When they’re with their buddies, their tendency to engage in reckless and risky behavior is amplified.’”

“Perhaps this midlife return to the trappings of adolescence was an inevitable evolution for a Millennial man whose success came so early and so spectacularly, catapulting him into the world of serious adults before he was completely ready. But it’s also not difficult to speculate that our immature cultural moment—spurred on by Trump’s reelection—–is what turned Zuckerberg, whom Musk not so long ago derided as ‘Zuck the cuck,’ from a naive techno-optimist 20-something into a middle-aged man in a gold chain giving opinions about masculine energy.”

“This kind of impulsiveness also seems evident in the acts of the Trump administration. When Trump is given the freedom to speak off-the-cuff, but it seemed clear enough that, to the president, the risks of announcing a half-baked plan (not to mention the risks of the plan itself) paled in comparison to the potential payoffs, which largely amounted to attention.”

“The skills of adult life—emotional continence, more accurate risk perception, self-control, and greater precision in future forecasting—are developed in adolescence through physical changes in the brain and body systems, but also through guidance and experience.”

“Some have turned their sights to Trump. The president embodies both the aspirational adulthood that is the stuff of teenage fantasies (private jets, models, two Big Macs for dinner), and the punishing father who men wise enough to understand their own need for greater discipline imagine will whip everyone into shape. At a Trump rally in Georgia, Tucker Carlson offered this disciplinarian-daddy vision of Trump’s return to the White House: “Dad comes home,” Carlson told the crowd. “He’s pissed. Dad is pissed. And when Dad gets home, do you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now. The crowd broke into a chant of “Daddy’s home!” Mel Gibson used the same metaphor after Trump visited a fire-ravaged Los Angeles. “It’s like Daddy arrived and he’s taking his belt off,” he said. The phrase is so ubiquitous in MAGA circles that Roseanne Barr, donning blond dreadlocks and heavily reliant on Auto-Tune, recorded a postelection rap titled “Daddy’s Home.”

Conclusion

We are at a pivotal moment in American history, where the line between democratic principles and autocratic power is becoming dangerously blurred. The adolescent mentality exemplified by Donald Trump and his supporters—impulsive, self-serving, and destructive—threatens to dismantle the very institutions that uphold our freedoms. As we face this unprecedented challenge, it is crucial to recognize that the future of our democracy rests in the hands of each one of us. We cannot afford to be passive. We must act now, supporting those who stand firm against corruption, like Senator Mark Kelly, and reinforcing our commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law. This is not just a battle for political power; it is a fight for the soul of our nation. Stand up, speak out, and vote—our democracy depends on it.

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