Donald Trump versus Charles Manson. Here’s some things they have in common:

1.) The cult of personality to the point of brainwashing their members. Both brainwashed their cult members into believing incredibly unbelievable things. Manson: that the Beatles song Helter Skelter was a message predicting inter-racial war in the United States. Trump: that the election was stolen, that he was cheated, that people’s votes weren’t counted, that our democracy was under attack by Democrats.

2.) Infamous acts of terror. Manson: on August 8, 1969 he gave his followers a pep talk, sent them out on a mission to a particular house (10050 Cielo Drive) to start their revolution. Trump: on January 6, 2021 he gave his followers a pep talk, sent them on a mission down Pennsylvania Avenue, and his minions dutifully stormed the capitol on his behalf. The end result? In both instances, 5 people died.

3.) Neither Manson nor Trump physically killed anyone. Manson and Trump did not go with their people — they had their followers do their dirty work. We refer to Manson as the most horrendous murderer in the United States, but he didn’t physically kill. Same with Trump. Manson told his followers “if you're going to do something do it well and leave something witchy” — he always said he never specifically told his cult members to murder, that they did that on their own. The same way that Rudy Giuliani, who warmed the stage for Trump on January 6th, called for “trial by combat” against the Democrats. The same way that Donald Trump Jr. threatened the Republican members of Congress who didn’t back his father’s claim to the presidency: “we’re coming for you.” The same way Trump incited the mob and lit the flame by refusing to concede, by calling the election outcomes an “egregious assault on our democracy,” telling his mob of supporters to “fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” before he turned them loose on the capitol.

4.) Both Trump and Manson never blamed themselves, never saw themselves as culpable for their followers’ actions, and never condemned the deeds of their followers. Manson: when his followers returned from Sharon Tate’s house, he was there to greet them, he was there for his “family.” Trump: as his followers stormed the capitol, he recorded a video message to them, calling them “great patriots,” saying he loved them and that they’re “very special.”

So which cult leader is worse? Trump is worse. His lies led an insurrection. He turned his followers into seditionists on a war path to lynch Mike Pence. The rioters brought pipe bombs to the capitol. They set up a hangman’s rope and chanted “hang Mike Pence” when the vice president didn’t overturn the election (something he wasn’t able to do in the first place). They brought guns, zip ties, went so far as to beat cops with the American flag, and Trump hasn’t faced nearly enough of the consequences, except for private companies stepping up to stop him from continuing his coup on social media. Manson is dead and his cult is in jail, but Trump and his cult still present a very real, very present danger to our country.