How Donald Trump Turned the Republican Party into an Addicted, Dysfunctional Family System
In the years since Donald Trump entered the political stage, the Republican Party has morphed into a fractured entity resembling a dysfunctional family in the throes of addiction. For those who grew up in households shaped by alcoholism or other forms of addiction, this dynamic may feel unsettlingly familiar. From rewriting reality and gaslighting to denial and outright abuse, Trump’s influence has transformed the GOP into an entity that not only harbors these behaviors but thrives on them.
Anyone who has witnessed addiction up close knows the disorienting blur between fact and fiction that often defines life within such a family. Reality is bent and reformed to hide the ever growing addiction, (in this case to power), and the addict themselves whose needs, delusions, and compulsions become the household’s gravitational center. Trump’s approach to politics, as well as the blind loyalty it has commanded, has turned the Republican Party into his very own system of survival and evasion.
The Rewriting of Reality
In addiction-fueled households, denial becomes an art form. Each member plays a part in keeping the truth at bay, either out of fear or resignation. Trump’s rewriting of reality — from election fraud conspiracies to pandemic minimization — has seen his followers embrace a worldview that defies facts and evidence. This isn’t just cognitive dissonance; it’s a willingness to reshape their version of reality to appease a man who, in classic addictive style, seems unable to face the consequences of his own actions.
But the real tragedy lies in the way Trump’s followers, like family members enmeshed in addiction dynamics, have started to echo his alternate reality, even when it contradicts their own lived experiences. Facts become malleable, twisted to justify, shield, or excuse him. In this way, Trump hasn’t just influenced the party; he’s ensnared it in a psychological web where truth is disposable.
Gaslighting and Denial
Trump’s approach to political life has been marked by a relentless pattern of gaslighting, leaving many in his party dazed and uncertain of what’s real. His habitual insistence on “alternative facts” recalls the classic addict’s tendency to deflect responsibility. In an addicted household, it’s not uncommon for family members to be told they didn’t see or hear what they knew they did. Similarly, Trump has deployed gaslighting to convince his base that their own eyes and ears deceive them — that only he can be trusted.
This pervasive denial trickles down to the GOP base. Followers are told, and soon come to believe, that any criticism of Trump is a betrayal of their own values, that the “outsiders” or “liberals” merely seek to destroy them. Just as family members in denial excuse or enable destructive behavior, the party collectively denies Trump’s failings, even as they echo through every level of our society.
The Weaponization of Shame
Addictive families often feel shame but because it is an unbearable emotion, they shut it down. This gives their shame, their knowledge that they are doing something that goes against their better judgement and values great power within their psyche. It makes them use excuses and rationalizations to keep the feeling at bay and makes them vulnerable to being manipulated.
Trump himself uses shame as a means of control and intimidation, he is a master at weaponizing it. From branding opponents with demeaning nicknames to discrediting anyone who defies him, Trump has employed shame to draw sharp lines between “us” and “them.” In doing so, he creates an environment where loyalty is rewarded, dissent is punished, and shame is a tool for insinuating and enforcing compliance. One phenomenon of abusive family systems is that this tactic of bullying shows other family members or in this case party members what will happen to them should they go against Trump’s wishes.
In this environment, those who express concern or voice disagreement become “disloyal traitors” — a tactic familiar to those who have grown up in systems ruled by addiction. Trump’s mastery of public shaming is one of his most effective forms of control. And the party, whether willingly or by force, has embraced it, even at the expense of individual integrity.
Perhaps the most chilling parallel is the element of psychological abuse that Trump has introduced to the Republican Party. With each act of humiliation, each dismissal of dissenting voices, he reinforces a dynamic that feels almost abusive. Like children in an alcoholic family, many in the GOP find themselves playing “survival roles” — the enabler, the hero, the mascot — adopting behaviors to navigate his erratic demands.
For these members, the primary goal is not advancing the party’s values or policies but ensuring that they are spared his wrath, that they remain in his good graces. This is the behavior of a party caught in a cycle of psychological dependence, where the mere act of survival means catering to the abuser’s whims, however irrational or damaging.
Breaking Free
As with any dysfunctional family, the GOP must confront the truth if it hopes to heal. Denial, gaslighting, and abuse will only carry the party so far; sooner or later, it will fracture under the weight of its own dysfunction. The GOP needs, urgently, an intervention — a moment of collective reckoning that will allow its members to break free of Trump’s hold, take responsibility for their own actions, and rediscover their values.
The path out of an abusive, addictive cycle is painful and complex. It requires courage to face the truth, to shed denial, and to assert a reality that may be uncomfortable or even shameful. But if the Republican Party is to survive — if it is to evolve into something healthy and whole — it must be willing to go through this process, however painful. Until it does, it remains trapped in a toxic family dynamic, held hostage by a figure who has proven all too willing to sacrifice the party’s future for his own preservation.
In the end, true healing will come only when the GOP can see Trump for what he is — and for what he has done — and find the strength to break free.
Tuesday is a day of reckoning. So many courageous Republicans have joined hands with Democrats not to change parties, but to unify a fractured country and to restore the dignity, integrity and decency we have all come to cherish. This does not make them Democrats at all, it makes them thinking, reasoning, righteous people who are capable of holding the center, of exercising the kind of positive power and sacrifice that is what has actually made this country great. It makes them capable of using their own powers of reason and not being cowed by tactics that all of us who have enjoyed the freedoms we have been lucky enough to have should never not succumb to.
One of the problems with delusion is that we become so invested in it that we feel as if we will lose ourselves if we change courses, that by admitting we were mistaken, we will somehow fall apart, we will destroy our own identity. But that is part of the power of an illusion. An identity that isn’t your own, that you haven’t figured out by your own wits and work, is not really worth hanging onto. Once you take the first step, the second and third become more possible. And soon, you are on a new path. This week we are blessed with a clear path; life doesn’t always make a path so clear. We can choose life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We can chose hope for a future we can build upon, rather than be crushed by. We can use the most fundamental power that so many have bled to preserve We can vote. In this election, there is only one path out and it’s a vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz.