Dr. Steven Hassan's framework describing how cult leaders exert control over followers — covering everything from clothing to public pledges — was applied to American politics in a new video, in which former cult member Jim Picariello argued the MAGA movement has fallen under Donald Trump's control.

Hassan's model, known as the BITE method, describes control through undue influence across four dimensions: Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional. Hassan, a former member of the Unification Church who went on to counsel people leaving high-control groups, introduced the model in his 1988 book Combating Cult Mind Control and later applied his framework directly to Trump in his 2019 book The Cult of Trump.

Using that framework, Picariello said Trump is "reinforcing mind control" through methods that range from subtle to outlandish. He pointed to Trump buying his Cabinet officials shoes that did not fit as an example falling under the first column, "behavior" — a category that includes "control of physical environment, rigid rules, rewards and punishments and dependence and obedience."

"They were exactly the same style, and everybody was — what did they do? They wore them anyway just to show that they had allegiance towards Trump," said Picariello. "Now he's controlled their behavior."

The red MAGA hats are the more visible example. "Everybody wears the hats. They feel like they're a part of a group, something bigger than themselves. It's human nature to want to do that. But when you can inspire one person, many people to behave in the way of wearing clothes — like, for instance, when they were wearing the ear bandages, right?" he said, referring to the 2024 convention after a bullet grazed Trump's ear. He also cited the "lock her up" chants and the administration's "prayer meetings." At a recent event in Dallas, Texas, Trump had his supporters swear an oath to him and the GOP. Picariello additionally pointed to Trump's obsessive decoration of the White House.

On the language front, Picariello invoked psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who began studying the Chinese government's mind control and described the ritualistic nature of its language use in his 1961 study Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, which catalogued techniques such as "loading the language" — constricted jargon that reduces complex experience into ready-made slogans. Trump's frequent use of "thank you for your attention to this matter" is an example of that, Picariello said.

The "Information" section of the BITE model, he said, is perfectly illustrated Trump's recent decision to ban the press from the White House.

"Any news — [the] negative news story is fake, right? So just ignore that. It's fake news. Calling the media the 'enemy of the state.' You remember when he was doing that, which is a classic authoritarian thing to do. So, you can just discount all of that and that way you're only getting your information from one or few places that agree with Trump's MAGA's point of view," he said. Meanwhile, Picariello noted, Trump is crafting AI propaganda depicting himself as strong and powerful, reinforcing the language with images.

He also flagged the renaming of things like the "Lake of America" and the "Gulf of America," along with a recent decision to eliminate the word "artificial intelligence" and instead refer to it as "super intelligence."

Under "thought control," Picariello explained that Trump setting up his own social media site is a prime example. It was not enough, he argued, that Trump convinced his followers to ignore unpopular news reports; now he can create his own information bubble for everyone to join in together.

"This is something that bleeds into information, obviously, right? So the information that's coming out of Truth Social is a very narrow way of looking at the world and often factually incorrect," continued Picariello. "But you're creating a thought process of how to consume information. Creating a limited vocabulary. You know, 'this is tremendous. This is the best!'"

He related this to George Orwell's "1984," whose fictional "Newspeak" was designed to shrink the range of thought by cutting vocabulary, and which, he noted, is not merely about thought control but also changes how people think about something. "And this is a real thing," Picariello said. "You know, it changes the wiring of your brain if you think about things enough. And then conspiracy theories. I don't have to go on [about] the 2020 election is 'the big steal.' January 6 was the Feds, or was the left wing, or was whatever[.] But, that's controlling the way we think about what should be reality. And then ... he acts crazy, literally crazy. He says the most ridiculous things, and then the people who support him, what do they do? They come out later and go, 'Oh no, he really didn't mean that.' Or, 'Oh, you know, Trump. He just exaggerates.'"

That, Picariello said, is actual gaslighting — insisting something is not happening even as it happens in front of people's eyes. He compared it to the Wizard of Oz, who shouts, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

Finally on the list is emotion. Fear, he said, is a big one for Trump, who claimed that Mexicans and other Hispanics were drug dealers and criminals — creating the classic "us vs. them" pattern of manipulation. It helps people in the group have a common enemy to work against.

"Then everybody can just focus on the enemy while nobody's sort of distracted by the ... economy or jobs or or healthcare or anything like that," he added.

Another example, he said, is Trump labeling anyone who criticizes him as someone who simply "hates America."