A former hardcore Donald Trump fanatic has revealed the moment that led him to shun the MAGA movement and admit he was ‘ashamed and embarrassed’ to have supported the former president.
Rich Logis, a Florida resident who made a name for himself in conservative media circles for his furious pro-Trump rants, admitted he became to obsessed when Trump was elected in 2016.
He treated fellow acolytes not only as a second family, but above his real one, and said he was sucked into the MAGA vortex through fears over Hillary Clinton.
But now, following years of ardent support, he revealed to the Orlando Sentinel why he has turned his back on Trump and his supporters’ ‘perpetual feelings of desperation and panic.’
Rich Logis was so deep into Donald Trump fandom that he treated fellow acolytes not only as a second family, but neglected his wife and two children for them
Logis (pictured in an old pro-Trump rant) is now ‘ashamed and embarrassed’ of how he frequently ‘dehumanized’ Trump’s opponents, including calling Democrats ‘malignant cancerous cells that seek to overtake healthy cells’
For Logis, breaking point came as he watched his fellow fanatics storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed effort to stop Joe Biden’s election win being certified.
These doubts grew during the pandemic when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whom Trump endorsed, pursued policies that led to more deaths from Covid in 2021.
He said he realized from reading other sources there were a lot of things he wasn’t told inside the MAGA bubble, and Logis shared his story in hopes of winning over other former Trump fanatics.
When he was first attracted to the movement in 2015, Logis said he saw Trump as a disruptive force that would ‘drain the swamp’ and ‘take a flamethrower to the system’, and didn’t worry about his distasteful antics.
‘I joined MAGA because I have always been suspicious of our two-party system, and I saw Trump – with no military or government experience – as an ideal candidate for the moment in our history,’ he said.
‘It made me feel I was part of something important: A movement that was trying to save American democracy.’
Logis saw Trump as a disruptive force that would ‘drain the swamp’ and ‘take a flamethrower to the system’, and didn’t worry about his distasteful antics
Logis, 47, even volunteered for the campaign in his local Broward County, in central Florida, and felt vindicated when Trump was victorious.
From there he was pulled further and further into the fanatical community that is Trump’s most hardcore supporters.
Logis neglected his wife and two children to spend every free moment he had on the MAGA movement, writing venom filled social media posts and columns for far-right media, and meeting up with like-minded voters.
‘My MAGA second family, as much as I’m embarrassed to admit this, oftentimes took precedence over my actual blood family,’ he told the Orlando Sentinel.
‘I had a lot of fear, and I listened to that fear and that was really how I got swept up into the entire MAGA movement and community.
‘We were the real Americans. Anyone against us were the fake Americans.’
Logis is now ‘ashamed and embarrassed’ of how he frequently ‘dehumanized’ Trump’s opponents, including calling Democrats ‘malignant cancerous cells that seek to overtake healthy cells’.
Logis neglected his wife and children to spend every free moment he had on the MAGA movement, writing venom filled social media posts and columns for far-right media, and meeting up with like-minded voters
Logis pictured with Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
He finally began to have doubts when the storming of the capitol erupted, which grew as he criticized DeSantis’ pandemic response.
He started reading other sources and realized there were a lot of things he wasn’t told inside the MAGA bubble.
‘I came to understand that MAGA is sustained by a series of myths that are intended to create perpetual feelings of desperation and panic,’ he said.
Finally, he very publicly quit on August 30, 2022, but the problem was what came next.
Logis had alienated most of his friends and family with his hardcore views, and lost the new ones he gained by walking away from MAGA.
‘Leaving MAGA was a tumultuous roller coaster of a process for me. It may be one of the most difficult endeavors you embark upon,’ he said.
Logis cautioned those who dislike Trump and his supporters not to speak too harshly of them, as it made them more likely to stick together and afraid to leave
He explained that the most committed supporters had been ‘completely emotionally connected’ to that community for years and it was hard to walk away.
Logis cautioned those who dislike Trump and his supporters not to speak too harshly of them, as it made them more likely to stick together and afraid to leave.
‘If you refer to Trump voters as cultists and you say that they’re Nazis and you say that they’re racist and you say they’re misogynists and that they’re homophobes and that they’re Islamophobes… you’re pushing them close,’ he said.
‘You’re giving them reasons to stay.’
Logis is trying to make the transition easier by starting support group Leaving MAGA to provide an alternative ‘safe, non-judgmental community’.
‘Succumbing to these predatory myths does not mean you are unintelligent, weak, or lack good character and morals,’ he wrote on the group’s website.
‘I have a Bachelor’s degree; have been a working professional my entire life; am a family man; and consider myself a relatively honest and intelligent person. I think the same about you.’