Trump’s most effective tactic for retaining support is that anyone who offers even valid criticism is thereby proving their bias and not to be trusted. No one, in his presentation, has ever offered good-faith criticism.

Yes exactly. Even if he exalted you the day before, the criticism immediately makes you a Trump hater and thus dismissed.

Not just him, as you know, but also the anti-anti Trumpers.

The Gamergate people did this all the time. They even replicated each other's grammatical mistakes and used "bias" as an adjective all the time. "You're BIAS!"

Trump is a repulsive, self-centered and historically unlikable human being and so are >50% of the people living in America. I mean let’s be honest here. What other set of conditions would allow a man like Trump to ascend to the height of martyrdom?

Cult checklist: ✅ self-sealing doctrine ✅ devotion to a leader with authoritarian control ✅ exploitation of members ✅ irrational fears and social isolation of the group

This goes for his followers, as well. Sad.

To be fair, this has been the entire Republican line of argument (including Rush, Fox News, etc.) going back 50 years to the Nixon administration.

And the media kinda follows that logic by writing down his racist, undemocratic, misogynistic, antisemitic and/or tin foil head rhetoric.

Textbook narcissistic behavior. "Splitting" the world into loyalists and enemies. Ever shifting lines. Early on, journalists decided it was rude to use NPD to predict and explain his behavior. Putin seems less bothered.

He's effectively poisoned the public culture