She escaped the religious sect she grew up in. Now she says Trump’s MAGA movement is eerily similar
The Move of God ringleader Sam Fife believed God selected him for a greater purpose
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A woman has drawn similarities between Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and the apocalyptic, religious sect she escaped from.
In the autumn of 1974, as former president Richard Nixon resigned and the US was still entrenched in the Vietnam War, Cyd Chartier and her parents were introduced to the fundamentalist religious organization The Move of God.
The Move was founded by Sam Fife after he was allegedly booted from the Baptist church for adultery.
As the sect’s enigmatic and autocratic leader – up until his death in 1979 – Fife wrote a Divine Order doctrine in 1974 in which he claimed God had put The Move in place as a “many-membered manchild to govern the world.”
Now, five decades after she joined the religious sect as a child, Chartier has spoken out about the eerie resemblances between the group and Trump’s loyal fanbase setting out to “make America great again.”
“Mom and Dad bought it all: Fife’s lies, delusions and conspiracies,” Chartier writes in anHuffington Post essay.
Chartier says she saw the same thing happen when Trump announced he was running for president in 2016.
“Under the guise of a politician with a fake tan and bad haircut was an angry man, an arrogant man, a dark and dangerous man – a man so like Sam Fife that I immediately knew I was facing the same threat I had faced as a young woman all those years ago,” she writes.
“Then, in 2015, as I watched Donald Trump float down the Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy for the US presidency, I felt a stab of recognition.”
After leaving The Move behind, some of Chartier’s family upheld their conservative values and threw their support behind the Republican presidential candidate.
“After he won the election, I saw more and more Fife whenever Trump opened his mouth,” Chartier continues.
“The lying, misogyny, apocalyptic language, fear-mongering and the enthusiastic embrace of conspiracy theories all set off ancient alarms inside of me. I fell into a deep depression.”
Trump has often called for the MAGA crowd to battle (metaphorically), urging them to “fight” numerous times including in his January 6 2021 rally, during the attempt on his life in July and at his speech at the Republican National Convention. He has also called the Capitol rioters “warriors.”
Chartier recalls hearing similar language in Fife’s sermons where he declared that “God had selected him and his congregation to serve as warriors in the ultimate and final battle against worldly evil.”
Fife also believed God selected him for a greater purpose.
The former president has often shared his belief that divine intervention spared his own life so that he might be able to save America after he survived two assassination attempts in as many months.
“If I win that, that would really serve to say that if there’s some incredible power up there that wanted me to be involved in saving [the US] – and maybe it’s more than saving the nation. Maybe it’s saving the world,” he said in an interview with Dr Phil in August after he was shot in the ear at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally in July.
After the second attempt on his life last month at his West Palm Beach golf club, Trump said in an X Spaces livestream: “I mean, perhaps it’s God wanting me to be president to save this country; nobody knows.”
Chartier says she is now bracing as Trump vies to be elected president for a second term.
“Now that Trump once again threatens to take the reins of the federal government, the possibility of living under the eye of another misogynistic authoritarian regime feels frighteningly real,” she said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments