A former member of the People’s Temple is speaking out and comparing Donald Trump’s rhetoric to that of cult leader Jim Jones.
The People’s Temple was a remote settlement known to most as simply Jonestown. The settlement was located in Guyana and was founded by Jones.
The settlement is now infamous for the date November 18, 1978, when a total of 918 people died at the settlement. All but two of the deaths were caused by cyanide poisoning, in an event that has been labeled a “revolutionary suicide” by Jones on an audiotape of the event.
The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including in those deaths was United States, Congressman Leo Ryan. Jones had ordered the killings.
Jones told his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch. Children were killed first and while some adults willingly drank the poisoned drink, others were forced to or shot. A third of the 918 who died were babies and children.
Yulanda Williams fled Jonestown a year before the massacre. She went on to become an acting captain in the San Francisco Police department.
Willams says she sees similarities between Donald Trump and Jones’ rhetoric. Trump is “responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people” from COVID-19 she said.
Williams says that she moved to Jonestown with her husband and one-year-old daughter. She shares that soon after arriving at the settlement she knew they had made a “grave mistake.”
She said leaving was difficult because when they arrived at the settlement their passports and all of their money were taken. Eventually, she was able to convince Jones to let her family leave.
Williams remembers that the conditions at the settlement were horrific. She recalls other members being severely malnourished and many were physically, and verbally abused.
“There was consistent brainwashing going on because all day long and all night long when you try to sleep, all you would hear was him on the PA system yelling and screaming,” she recently told KRON-TV.
Williams says when she listens to Trump speak it reminds her of Jones.
“I sometimes listen to our commander in chief, he sounds so much and the rhetoric is so similar to that of Jim Jones,” Williams stated.
“But it is absolutely eerie for me and I think that over 240,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID.”
Jonestown was considered the largest number of Americans killed in a deliberate act until 9-11.
Hollywood legend Rob Reiner once took aim at rival Republican President Donald Trump and posted to Twitter just a few weeks ago where he too referred to a ‘cult’.
“Donald Trump has essentially shot and killed 100s of thousands Americans on 5th Ave, continues to do it every day, and he’s right, his cult doesn’t care. But the rest of US do. In 42 days we will arrest the killer.” 
Reiner is a highly acclaimed film director. His credits include: Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap, Misery, A Few Good Men & Ghosts of Mississippi. A glowing resume to be sure.
This only one of the long stream of tweets from him pounding the president. Reiner has been relentless as of late in his efforts to bring down Pres. Trump. A day after news of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, he called for people to ratchet up resistance efforts.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s body isn’t even cold and Mitch McConnell is dancing on her grave. This is war. Dems have powerful weapons. Now is the time to use them,” Reiner told.
Plus he added, “We are at an existential crossroads. Whether we live or die actually depends on our vote.” Along with some other high profile celebrities, Reiner takes a de facto lead in the resistance movement against Trump. Others include: Cher, Bette Midler, Alec Baldwin and Robert DeNiro.
Cher even gave her time to help raise millions for Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. While Reiner is also known as a major donor to the Democrats’ cause. And Reiner going so far as to call Trump a murderer on numerous occasions.
Judd Apatow, another Hollywood star, was quick to jump in on the criticism of President Trump.
The tweets criticizing the president were in response to journalist Sam Stein where he was critical of the way Trump downplayed the coronavirus pandemic recently at a rally in Ohio.
Stein said in the tweet, “It’s hard to overstate how damaging this quote is. It’s absolutely not true and will give people a profound sense of false optimism. The president here is quite literally endangering lives.”
Apatow responded saying, “Donald is a mass murderer. Any comment which doesn’t make that clear is lying about what he is doing. He has chosen to misinform people to help him politically which is killing tens of thousands more people. He is a mass murderer by choice. He should be impeached for murder.”
The criticism of Trump reached fever pitch after tapes of him were released recently where he can be heard admitting to Bob Woodward that he downplayed the severity the pandemic to the American people.
Trump can be heard saying, “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in on a February 7th phone call. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.” – “This is deadly stuff,” the president repeated, to emphasis the point.
The most damning part of the released recording is when Trump could be heard admitting that he wants to downplay the severity of the virus, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” Trump calls the release of the tapes and Woodward’s accounts of what occurred, “just another political hit job,” and claims he was simply acting in best interest of the country, even calling himself “a cheerleader for this country.”
