Brazil 
Not sure what the Brazil means, but it was very much U.S. administrations.
It’s not just government. I’ve been to several Microsoft software conferences where the star speaker was Bill Gates. His posse was huge, not just aides but also photographers and press. I imagine Steve Jobs, and many athletes, had/have the same kind of entourages.
Earlier in this thread is a clip from the movie Brazil, featuring a trail of hangers on like you mentioned.
That woman is really unwell.
I am guessing this got out because everyone else is sick of her?
I’d like to hear about one other “human printer” that rides in the trunk of a vehicle, runs behind golf carts, tweets 150 tweets in a day drooling all over Trump, and writes stalkerish love letters like she has written.
Maybe this is common behavior, but I don’t buy it. I know there are entourages, but I would expect if it happened with other US presidents, we’d know.
Well, I don’t have names. Just an eye witness to the similar behavior. People are weird when they are in a cult. My point is Trump might occupy your mind so much that you may not allow yourself to accept other presidential cults existed or will exist in the future.
No, seriously, though.
(Obama had trunk hoppers?)
I’ll believe it when I see news reporting on others. New agencies would jump all over no matter who the president is.
You were an eye witness…spill it! I’d love to know details of the similar behavior to Natalie Harp! Which president, what did the person do, etc.
There is weird shit in this admin that wouldn’t have even happened in Trump 1.
We’re just 30 years removed from Monica Lewinsky being a scandal. Trump spent the first several months of 2025 firing military leadership based on who Laura Loomer didn’t like.
There have been other politicians that had cults of personality, this is the first time the executive has been run like a cult.
If this kind of behavior had been occurring in the Biden administration or the Obama administration or the Clinton administration, it would have been a major talking point among conservatives.
Conservatives tried to make a major issue out of Obama wearing a tan suit. I can’t believe they wouldn’t have all been talking if he had a Natalie Harp in his inner circle.
Brazil is a 1985 dystopian science fiction black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. Terry Gilliam was of course a member of the Monty Python troupe, and co-directed the Life of Brian, where he met McKeown.
The first minute of the clip I posed upthread looks very much like the entourage you were describing. It is indeed “very Monty Python, Life of Brian stuff” like you are talking about—literally in the case of the clip since it was made by two of the people who worked on Life of Brian six years prior.
Though I think of Reagan determining policy based on what an astrologer said.
Using astrology or having an entourage of fanatics is crazy within normal parameters. Not normal, and not a good idea, but not as uncommon as they should be.
When people say “like a cult,” they don’t mean “factually incorrect,” but “involving deep and toxic crazy at the top, at the centre of the whole mess.”
The usual sorts of crazy have been given permission to take it to the next level, and they have.
I agree. Trying to find comparisons in previous administrations won’t work. There has never been THIS level of craziness and lack of touch with reality in the Presidency. This is Jim Jones level craziness. Trump is truly in a class by himself.
Watching a cabinet meeting feels like that Bill Mumy episode of Twilight Zone where everyone is afraid to get sent to the cornfield.
There has never been a moment in US History where the entire nation’s needs and desires have been set aside to satisfy the id of a narcissist with an IQ of 70.
I’ve been involved with the security of three presidential motorcades. 1 Bush and 2 Obama. The one I was able to witness close by moving slow had people in the back of the Tahoes with the hatch up. Presumably Obama was riding in The Beast. I didn’t see staffers only security. But it was obvious that it was a usual occurrence. Unknown if with Obama any staffers rode in the way back.
Oh. I was thinking more like obsessive fan who would hop into the trunk for the ride if it meant being able to tag along.
I know you’ve also mentioned security that would ride in the back, ready to hop out.
Yes, nice comparison. I’ve also compared it to the early scenes in the black comedy The Death of Stalin, where Stalin’s cabinet are falling over each other to kiss up to him, and no one dares contradict him, even for the craziest notions.
The difference being, Stalin’s underlings had a very real fear of being murdered if they fell out of favor. The cowards in trump’s cabinet are only concerend about salvaging their political careers, not being murdered (the occasional insurrection aside, of course).
Nope, actually. It was because Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff just happened to mention Natalie in a speech, saying Trump would rather “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace.”
And instead of just letting this go without comment, the White House and Trump allies got all defensive, acting like he accused Trump of having an affair. It was very telling.
Then that resulted in all of this other stuff, some of which had been noted before (like the human printer thing or her handling his social media) coming back to the forefront. It just ballooned from there.