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Survivor of the Jonestown Massacre compares Trump to Jim Jones: ‘The rhetoric is so similar’

It was 42 years ago, on November 18, 1978, that cult leader Jim Jones encouraged a mass suicide in Guyana — where more than 900 of his followers died after drinking Flavor-Aid (a drink similar to Kool-Aid) that had been laced with poison. KRON-TV in Northern California, on the 42nd anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre, discussed the tragedy with some of the survivors — and one of them compared Jones to President Donald Trump.

Jones’ cult, the People’s Temple, was founded in San Francisco, where he persuaded hundreds of his followers to join him in a settlement he set up in the South American country of Guyana — and he named that settlement, Jonestown, after himself. Yulanda Williams, a People’s Temple member, went to Jonestown with her husband and her one-year-old daughter. Williams, who avoided the Jonestown Massacre, explained to KRON why Trump reminds her so much of Jones.

Williams told KRON, “I sometimes listen to our commander in chief — he sounds so much (like him), and the rhetoric is so similar to that of Jim Jones. But it is absolutely eerie for me, and I think that over 240,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID. When we say Jonestown is the most tragic incident of a massacre of people, I say don’t forget about the commander in chief who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.” Continue reading.

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