History Main / CultOfPersonality

* Zig-zagged with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In their initial years in power, Pol Pot and his associates remained anonymous, preferring using pseudonyms like "Brother Number 1", "Brother Number 2", and so on. A cult of personality only emerged around [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian–Vietnamese_War the time open war broke out with Vietnam]].

*** One of the more notable examples, this has been attempted (apparently successfully) by UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, who was the country's 45th president, to the point where after he lost the 2020 election, he railed over and over again that [[VoteEarlyVoteOften it was rigged against him]], which his committed base then ate up. He then whipped up his supporters at a rally-turned-riot on January 6th, 2021, leading to a mob of them breaching the Capitol building to try and stop the election certification for UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, causing a sizable amount of destruction and five deaths (one Trump supporter and four police officers). Even well after Biden was formally certified, [[IRejectYourReality his most rabid followers still believed that the election was illegitimate]] (even after election officials from ''both'' parties said the win was legitimate) and that he would be reinstated at some point in the near future. Even before that day, however, Trump had a rabid fanbase that disbelieved every news outlet except ones that Trump voiced his support for, claimed he had been sent by God to "save" America, and is the greatest president ever. Alongside Trump himself, conspiracy theories have also fueled this, particularly the [=QAnon=] conspiracy that alleges that [[SatanicPanic the Democratic Party is full of Satanist cannibal pedophiles]] that Trump would arrest and have executed at any moment. Presently, the enduring belief among Trump's personality cult is that ''any'' problem in America today would be instantly fixed if he returned to power -- that, in Trump's words, "[he] alone can fix it".

*** One of the more notable examples, this has been attempted (apparently successfully) by UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, who was the country's 45th president, to the point where after he lost the 2020 election, he railed over and over again that [[VoteEarlyVoteOften it was rigged against him]], which his committed base then ate up. He then whipped up his supporters at a rally-turned-riot on January 6th, 2021, leading to a mob of them breaching the Capitol building to try and stop the election certification for UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, causing a sizable amount of destruction and five deaths (one Trump supporter and four police officers). Even well after Biden was formally certified, his most rabid followers still believed that the election was illegitimate (even after election officials from ''both'' parties said the win was legitimate) and that he would be reinstated at some point in the near future. Even before that day, however, Trump had a rabid fanbase that disbelieved every news outlet except ones that Trump voiced his support for, claimed he had been sent by God to "save" America, and is the greatest president ever. Alongside Trump himself, conspiracy theories have also fueled this, particularly the [=QAnon=] conspiracy that alleges that [[SatanicPanic the Democratic Party is full of Satanist cannibal pedophiles]] that Trump would arrest and have executed at any moment. Presently, the enduring belief among Trump's personality cult is that ''any'' problem in America today would be instantly fixed if he returned to power -- that, in Trump's words, "[he] alone can fix it".

* No pre-20th Century dictator took as much of an active interest in building and promoting a Cult than UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte. From very early in his career as Revolutionary General, Bonaparte used his considerable skills as a writer and published regular bulletins to his army building a particular style of address and relationship with his soldier. He also befriended Creator/JacquesLouisDavid (the famous Revolutionary painter who had fallen into political disrepute over his association with UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre) and commissioned him to paint several portraits of him, many of which became iconic and were widely distributed across Europe. As dictator, he had near total control over the press and his propagandists greatly enhanced and added to his already considerable military prowess by inventing whole battles, while sliding over some of his mistakes and near misses. He continued to build his cult even after his defeat at Waterloo, where he dictated memoirs in Saint Helena to an admirer that self-consciously painted him as a reflective tragic figure, courting himself a lot of sympathy in the process.

* In Indonesia, Sukarno, the first President, promoted a cult of personality, where his writings and speeches were compulsory discussions around universities, while government ran radio and TV stations constantly broadcasted his propaganda. Several landmarks and buildings in Indonesia were named after him.

** Even the ''[[http://youtu.be/oULO3i5Xra0?t=15m12s flowers]]'' are named after them, which Sukarno (first President of UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}) began as admiring praise for Kim Il-sung.

** Pauline Hanson of the One Nation party is one of the most infamous. Her platform is based on preserving Australian values (i.e. promoting racism, homophobia, etc. as free speech), having an opinion on every single topic and then trying to vilify anyone more qualified than herself and playing the WorkingClassHero image to the hilt despite being in politics since the 90s and seldom doing any visible work.

** UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher is to UK Conservatives what Reagan is to US Republicans: beloved by Tories for her introduction of neoliberal policies, dismantling of "inefficient" public sectors through privatization, and aggressive confrontation of striking unionists and the Soviet Union. To various working class Britons as well as [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Scots]], she is pretty much the devil incarnate who dismantled the country's coal industry and their associated communities, and that's not mentioning her support of Chilean dictator UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet and hostility towards LGBT Britons. Even her funeral divided the country: while she was given a £10 million state funeral in London, protesters flocked elsewhere to protest her legacy and held impromptu street parties, and the song "[[Film/TheWizardOfOz Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!]]" topped the charts.
* Josip Broz Tito fostered one for himself in Communist Yugoslavia as both the father of the socialist state ''and'' more importantly, a figure of South Slavic unity given the multiple ethnic groups within his state. In fact, his death and the demise of his personality cult gave one less thing for the Yugoslav peoples to agree on in the buildup to UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars. While not state enforced in any post-Yugoslav nation today, Tito still enjoys relative popularity for South Slavic and socialist "Brotherhood and Unity", a phrase popular in Yugoslavia.

*** One of the more notable examples, this has been attempted (apparently successfully) by UsefulNotesDonaldTrump, who was the country's 45th president, to the point where after he lost the 2020 election, he railed over and over again that [[VoteEarlyVoteOften it was rigged against him]], which his committed base then ate up. He then whipped up his supporters at a rally-turned-riot on January 6th, 2021, leading to a mob of them breaching the Capitol building to try and stop the election certification for UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, causing a sizable amount of destruction and five deaths (one Trump supporter and four police officers). Even well after Biden was formally certified, his most rabid followers still believed that the election was illegitimate (even after election officials from ''both'' parties said the win was legitimate) and that he would be reinstated at some point in the near future. Even before that day, however, Trump had a rabid fanbase that disbelieved every news outlet except ones that Trump voiced his support for, claimed he had been sent by God to "save" America, and is the greatest president ever. Alongside Trump himself, conspiracy theories have also fueled this, particularly the [=QAnon=] conspiracy that alleges that [[SatanicPanic the Democratic Party is full of Satanist cannibal pedophiles]] that Trump would arrest and have executed at any moment. Presently, the enduring belief among Trump's personality cult is that ''any'' problem in America today would be instantly fixed if he returned to power -- that, in Trump's words, "[he] alone can fix it".

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!

** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with [[UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad Prophet Muhammad]] in particular. There is an entire field known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith Hadith]] which involves recording and spreading Prophet Muhammad's words and actions, encouraging the Muslim Community to follow his advice and to follow him in his actions. Unlike most versions of the trope, they discourage depicting him in pictures and take it very seriously.
* The concept of the Cult of Personality has classical origins. In Ancient Egypt and Rome, Pharaohs and Emperors were deified and made into Godlike figures for the people to worship. There were taboos in Roman society against deification while the person was alive but Emperors worked around it to their advantage.
* In the case of Rome, the man who started a cult that in many ways anticipates the 20th Century model is UsefulNotes/PompeyTheGreat. As general in Judea and military governor in the Eastern Mediterranean, Pompey had coins printed with his image on it, despite being a general and not authorized to do that. He also encouraged his entourage to compare him to Alexander, and even called himself "the Great" and imitated Alexander [[{{Egopolis}} by founding towns]] named after him like Pompeiia and Magnopolis. Pompey even encouraged cults [[AGodAmI worshiping him as a God]]. He then invested heavily in promoted infrastructure and theaters with his name attached to it. Others like Julius Caesar and especially UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} took it even further, with Augustus being closer to an Orwellian despot than anyone after him. Incidentally, Stalin, an avid reader of classical history, was a major fan of Augustus.
--> '''Mary Beard''': ''One of his most significant and lasting innovations was to flood the Roman world with his portrait: heads stamped on the small change in people's pockets, life-size or larger statues in marble and bronze standing in public squares and temples...This was on a vastly bigger scale than anything of the sort before...about 250 statues, not to mention images on jewels and gems, [[BigBrotherIsWatching found right across Roman territories and beyond]], from Spain to Turkey and Sudan, show Augustus in many different guises, from heroic conqueror to pious priest.''
* The Soviet Union elevated their founder, UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, to almost divine stature. Countless statues, paintings, streets, cities were named after him. His corpse was mummified and put on permanent display in Moscow.
** Initially, Lenin and the Bolsheviks did not want to build such a cult, and Lenin repeatedly insisted that he be buried in Petrograd (ci-devant Saint Petersburg) without fuss, and the party initially wanted to honor his wishes. However when they kept his body for public display, there was a huge mass of people coming from the countryside to pay a visit, and the Bolsheviks hesitantly started constructing a makeshift mausoleum of wood before finally building a permanent structure in Russian Constructivism style (albeit one modeled on Egyptian and Babylonian tombs). Contrary to general belief, Stalin wasn't involved in the counsel which was overseen by the very powerful head of Cheka Felix Dzherzinsky, which finally decided to mummify Lenin and put him on display. The cult of Lenin which came after his death led to the renaming of Petrograd into Leningrad (which lasted till the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar). Later observers noted that this cult was rooted in Russia's traditions of venerating Orthodox saints, who were often put on display and indeed internally many Communists opposed it on these same grounds.
** Josef Stalin's cult was more deliberately created and something which Stalin took great interest in promoting and preserving. Ships, [[{{Egopolis}} cities]], buildings, and a prize (the Order of Stalin, which was later renamed Order of Lenin) were named after him. After his death, Nikita Khrushchev made a process to de-stalinize the Soviet Union, so statues and cities were destroyed and renamed and only the cult of Lenin survived. Ironically in modern Russia, Stalin remains a cult figure for Russia nationalists, less for his socialist policies and more for his role in defeating Nazi Germany and presiding over the country at the [[GloryDays height of its power]]. Stalin privately expressed irritation with his own cult, and as per a well-known anecdote, mocked it in an exchange with his son:
---> '''Stalin's Son''': But I am a Stalin too.\\
'''Josef Stalin''': No you're not. You're not Stalin and I'm not Stalin. (Indicates portrait of himself) That is Stalin. Stalin is Soviet power. Stalin is what he is in the newspapers and portraits, not you, no, not even me.
** UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin can probably rival Stalin's use of this concept when it comes to UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, having turned himself into a MemeticBadass who is absolutely beloved by the Russian people at large, who think he can do no wrong.
* Unsurprisingly, [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] made one for himself. Squares, ships and the like would be named after him, pictures of him were all over the place, and "Heil Hitler" virtually displaced the usual "JustForFun/{{Hello}}" in common parlance, although in his case, it was often driven by the attempts of various lower-level Nazis to flatter him or attract his attention. While this guaranteed that none of the power-thirsty underlings in his inner circle could easily replace him, it also backfired on him spectacularly. As the war dragged on he clearly [[BelievingTheirOwnLies started believing it himself]], [[SanitySlippage now convinced]] that he was some sort of divine Wagnerian hero and the greatest military mastermind who ever lived. This set him apart from someone like Stalin, who seems to have cynically perpetuated his own cult of personality but was still practical enough to recognize his shortcomings on military matters, whereas Hitler overruled his generals constantly until only [[YesMan Yes-Men]] were left.
* In North Korea dictators Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-Il are worshiped as gods. Literally! There are giant statues of them everywhere and almost every activity is done in celebration of the "Great Leaders". The works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin were even de facto banned in favor of only reading the Kims' ideological tracts. Of course, their corpses are also mummified and put on display. The current leader Kim Jong-Un is venerated as the "Great Successor". Their familial succession has been compared to a monarchy.
** Even the ''[[http://youtu.be/oULO3i5Xra0?t=15m12s flowers]]'' are named after them.
* Zig-zagged with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In their initial years in power, Pol Pot and his associates remained anonymous, preferring using pseudonyms like "Brother Number 1", "Brother Number 2", and so on. A cult of personality only emerged around the time open war broke out with Vietnam.
* No pre-20th Century dictator took as much of an active interest in building and promoting a Cult than UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte. From very early in his career as Revolutionary General, Bonaparte used his considerable skills as a writer and published regular bulletins to his army building a particular style of address and relationship with his soldier. He also befriended Creator/JacquesLouisDavid (the famous Revolutionary painter who had fallen into political disrepute over his association with UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre) and commissioned him to paint several portraits of him, many of which became iconic and were widely distributed across Europe. As dictator, he had near total control over the press and his propagandists greatly enhanced and added to his already considerable military prowess by inventing whole battles, while sliding over some of his mistakes and near misses. He continued to build his cult even after his defeat at Waterloo, where he dictated memoirs in Saint Helena to an admirer that self-consciously painted him as a reflective tragic figure, courting himself a lot of sympathy in the process.
* During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, the government often tried to promote a series of new cults of personalities to create new symbols of legitimacy but kept failing:
** The revolutionary regime promoted the Pantheon, which was an attempt to make a cult of several intellectual figures like Creator/{{Voltaire}} and Creator/JeanJacquesRousseau. When Mirabeau, the great statesman and leader of the early years of the Revolution, died, he was interred into the Pantheon. Then it was revealed that he had secretly corresponded with the King and indulged in corruption, and this tarnished his reputation and eventually, they disinterred his body and threw him out of the Pantheon and even years later despite being rehabilitated, his remains are lost.
** Jean-Paul Marat was the most vocal and controversial political pamphleteer of the Revolution and the voice of the militant radical Paris. When he was assassinated, the Jacobin Club (which was formerly quite critical of Marat and tried to keep him at arm's length) promoted a cult of personality around him, with busts of Marat taking the place of Jesus Christ in many churches across France, street names and ships renamed after him, and a famous painting by revolutionary propagandist Creator/JacquesLouisDavid that was widely printed across France. When Mirabeau was chucked out of the Pantheon, Marat was interred in his place, but a few months later, the new regime phased out the Marat cult and kicked Marat out of the Pantheon as well.
** Robespierre, ironically enough, was quite critical of cults of personality and personally affected a highly self-conscious modesty that avoided excessive flattery and personal displays. When he did promote cults, he ensured that they revolved around values rather than people and featured common people (such as the runaway {{Child Soldier|s}} Viola and Bara, who were included in "Le chant du depart"). He also promoted the Deist-Nationalist Festival of the Supreme Being, the biggest and most widely attended revolutionary festival, that he personally presided leading many around him to suspect he was installing a cult around himself, leading to his downfall.
* In China.

* UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek had statues of himself put up all around Taiwan, which were mostly torn down after his death. The fact that numerous statues were set up to him was used as an argument that he wasn't a dictator- he actually publicly decried them later on, but darn it, people insisted on erecting statues to him all over the place. Chiang also had coins minted with his face on them, large portraits of himself put up whenever possible, and children were taught to laud him as the savior of the nation in schools. His son Chiang Ching-kuo emulated him to lesser success.
* In the United States, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln are certainly eligible for being featured on this page. They are highly regarded by many Americans as the most perfect presidents they ever had, to the point that Washington is believed to have "never told a lie" and Lincoln is nicknamed "Honest Abe"; pointing out the political and ethical shortcomings the two actually displayed[[labelnote:such as...]]Washington's controversial responses to the French Revolution, destruction of Indian communities during the French and Indian War, signing of the Jay Treaty (which is widely credited for galvanizing the ideological divisions that led to the partisan system of American politics that Washington himself condemned), and ownership of slaves; Lincoln's suspension of ''habeas corpus'' (which, to be fair, was at the time permissible of the president to do in the context of a rebellion like the Civil War, but later changes in legislation made suspension something only Congress could enact) and open racism, which had the knock-on effect of making him slow to act on abolition[[/labelnote]] is a good way to draw ire from most Americans who ''aren't'' history buffs.
** In general, mass media-age American presidential campaigns (since TheForties or TheFifties at least) involve promoting a cult of personality around a particular candidate. Those elected have this endure in cultural memory even after their candidacy, years in office, and oblivion in the form of ads, memes, and catch-phrases. UsefulNotes/FranklinDelanoRoosevelt and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy are well-known examples, but UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, UsefulNotes/BarackObama, and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump are not far behind in terms of promoting campaigns that revolved around images, posters, logos, and appeals to personality and image to get people to vote for them. Even ultimately unsuccessful campaigns, such as those of Barry Goldwater, Hillary Clinton, and UsefulNotes/BernieSanders, have attempted this.
*** One of the more notable examples, this has been attempted (apparently successfully) by [[UsefulNotes Donald Trump]], who was the country's 45th president, to the point where after he lost the 2020 election, he railed over and over again that [[VoteEarlyVoteOften it was rigged against him]], which his committed base then ate up. He then whipped up his supporters at a rally on January 6, 2021, leading to a mob of them breaching the Capitol building to try and stop the election certification for UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, causing a sizable amount of destruction and five deaths (one Trump supporter and four police officers). Even well after Biden was formally certified, his most rabid followers still believed that the election was illegitimate (even after election officials from ''both'' parties said the win was legitimate) and that he would be reinstated at some point in the near future. Even before that day, however, Trump had a rabid fanbase that disbelieved every news outlet except ones that Trump voiced his support for, claimed he had been sent by God to "save" America, and is the greatest president ever. Alongside Trump himself, conspiracy theories have also fueled this, particularly the [=QAnon=] conspiracy that alleges that the Democratic Party is full of Satanist cannibal pedophiles that Trump would arrest and have executed at any moment. Presently, the enduring belief among Trump's personality cult is that ''any'' problem in America today would be instantly fixed if he returned to power.
* Music/MichaelJackson is a notable non-political example. Quite a few pop stars have been elevated to legendary proportions by their fans, especially if they died relatively young -- Music/ElvisPresley was the most prominent example for decades, followed closely by John Lennon. But Jackson ''actively'' cultivated this trope in his lifetime, pushing the ForcedMeme of "The King of Pop" and casting himself as a great humanitarian and FriendToAllChildren. (Consider [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c93o05SrWzE this.]]) Moreover, he encouraged fans to regard '''anything''' negative reported about him as nothing more than persecution by the [[StrawmanNewsMedia sinister mass media]]. This worked; after his death they went publicly berserk, and the mythologizing around him only continues to grow -- as do conspiracy theories and harassment/demonization of those perceived as his enemies (in particular, ''multiple'' people who have accused him of sexually abusing them when they were young boys). This reached the point where after the reevaluation of Jackson's public legacy that the ''Leaving Neverland'' documentary spawned in 2019, the man's cult of personality responded with such intensity that it drowned out the documentary and led to it and its claims falling by the wayside by the end of the year.
* As generations of British schoolchildren will tell you: British teachers have created a cult of personality around Creator/WilliamShakespeare. Every pupil has been forced to appreciate Shakespeare's genius over the centuries, even when talking about passages from his works that amount to elaborate dick jokes.
* Imperial Japan fostered one around its Emperor up until roughly the ''Humanity Declaration'' by the Showa Emperor (Hirohito) at the behest and request of the American occupation government. Afterwards, he became a figure of post war stability and democratization, but nowhere near to the often-suicidal levels of devotion he had been receiving prior to the end of the war. That said, the extent to which Hirohito's cult saw him as a PhysicalGod or GodEmperor appears to be disputed based on Western and Japanese definitions of cults and Godhood, meaning his treatment was either at home here or more appropriate for the latter trope.

* Subverted with Cuba's two most iconic dictators, UsefulNotes/FulgencioBatista and UsefulNotes/FidelCastro. The two didn't bother cultivating personality cults for themselves, although unofficial ones formed anyway. Batista was referred to as 'My General' among his supporters and had statues of himself put up all across Cuba. Castro instead favored a cult of his friend and fellow revolutionary UsefulNotes/CheGuevara, who himself is an almost messianic figure amongst many communists as an aspiration, and heavily promoting the existing personality cult of Cuban national hero, revolutionary poet Jose Marti. Castro officially forbid any personality cult of himself and banned the building of statues of him in Cuba, but it didn't stop the Communist Party from giving out portraits of him, putting his face on street art, or having government officials weep in the presence of Castro (who usually reacted by giving them one of his famous bear hugs.)

* Hồ Chí Minh enjoys a personality cult to this day in Vietnam, though not as much for socialism (which isn't considered a priority in Vietnam anymore) as much as he is a revolutionary hero and Vietnamese patriot, ironically akin to how Americans would consider George Washington. Shrines to him can be found around the country. For cultural context: Vietnam's folk religion involves ancestor worship, and deification/canonization of military heroes. Trần Hưng Đạo, a general who successfully led resistance efforts against Yuan-Mongol armies, is a good example of a worshiped hero. Hồ's avuncular public image and politician/military leader status qualifies him for worship, as an honorary family member to the entire nation and as a savior from foreign domination. It hews closely to the "devotion to a saint" definition above. Similar to Lenin, he did not want to be mummified and put on display. His comrades promptly ignored his will, which stipulated that he was to be cremated and the ashes spread through the country so he could forever be with his family (i.e. the whole nation). The result is the Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum and Museum in Hanoi, which preserved his corpse, as well as his living space and workplace. It's a popular location for field trips nationally so that schoolchildren can be taught about his legacy, and adults who lived through the war can get a chance to see the man they fought for.
* In the Philippines, a segment of Rodrigo Duterte's supporters adore him so much that they are sometimes considered eligible to this trope, due to said segment justifying '''everything''' he does. This, suffice to say, has made him one of the most controversial figures in the history of the nation.
** One of Duterte's predecessors, Ferdinand Marcos, also was the subject of a personality cult, and is portrayed as a war hero, a strong leader, and a wise man. Marcos was affectionately called as "Apo Lakay", meaning "Wise Elder" in the Ilocano language in which Marcos was a native speaker of. He was even portrayed together with his wife Imelda as a Filipino version of Adam and Eve (Malakas and Maganda), lit. Strength and Beauty in some official portraits, and built a monument of himself based on Mount Rushmore. There is overlap between the supporters of Marcos and Duterte, due to the latter having a positive opinion of Marcos and had the former president be given a heroes' burial. His son, Bongbong Marcos, was elected as the President of the Philippines in 2022 and did his best to rehabilitate his late father's image.
* In Indonesia, Sukarno promoted a cult of personality, where his writings and speeches were compulsory discussions around universities, while government ran radio and TV stations constantly broadcasted his propaganda. Several landmarks and buildings in Indonesia were named after him.
** After Sukarno's fall in 1966, Suharto also promoted his own cult of personality to a lesser extent. His regime exaggerated his military accomplishments and justified the genocidal massacres of Chinese-Indonesians and suspected communists that brought his to power, and like Sukarno, his propaganda was required reading for students. While Suharto's cult of personality was largely dismantled after his fall in 1998, many conservative politicians still attempt to revive his image as a strongman who defended his country from foreign interference.
* In Iran, a cult of personality developed around Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and after his death, Ali Khamenei. Their quotes are often used along with those of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.
* UsefulNotes/TimurTheLame was an Islamic warlord from Central Asia that created an image of legend and myth around himself to justify his conquests as he could not declare himself caliph, the supreme and spiritual leader of Islam, since the post was already taken by the Abbasids, nor he could consider himself a ''khan'' since he wasn't descended from Genghis Khan. He claimed he wanted to reunite Genghis Khan's conquests that were taken by usurpers such as the Ottomans, Mamluks, and Persians, and that he was [[DivineRightOfKings favored by God]] due to his successful campaign as conqueror, and he amassed one of the largest armies of that time period for these very reasons.
* While not a politician ''per se'', the late [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Diana Spencer, former Princess of Wales]], was a widely beloved figure with not just the British public, but with the whole world over due to her extensive charity work, NiceGirl public persona (to the point of hugging AIDS patients at a time when people were still frightened of and ignorant of how the disease was spread), candid openness of her own troubles in interviews (such as her [[AwfulWeddedLife unhappy marriage to Prince Charles]] and mental health struggles) and [[TheBeautifulElite beautiful looks]]. Her untimely death via car crash in 1997 brought about a massive outpouring of grief from people all over the globe and she was posthumously described as "The People's Princess", being credited for being the face of a new generation of UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily.
** UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill is well regarded as a great wartime leader in the United Kingdom, not to mention being a skilled orator and Nobel Prize laureate. He topped the list of 100 Greatest Britons, with some politicians even heralding him as the father of the modern Western world. This turned him into a larger than life figure after his death, while his more unpleasant episodes, such as his support of eugenics, concentration camps in Kenya, indifference to a deadly wartime famine in British India (which killed several million there), and military blunders such as the Gallipoli campaign, are generally not mentioned. However, his depictions in former British colonies, especially India, is usually less positive.
** UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher is to UK Conservatives what Reagan is to US Republicans: beloved by Tories for her introduction of neoliberal policies, dismantling of "inefficient" public sectors through privatization, and aggressive confrontation of striking unionists and the Soviet Union. To various working class Britons as well as Welsh and Scots, she is pretty much the devil incarnate who dismantled the country's coal industry and their associated communities, and that's not mentioning her support of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and hostility towards LGBT Britons. Even her funeral divided the country: while she was given a £10 million state funeral in London, protesters flocked elsewhere to protest her legacy and held impromptu street parties, and the song "[[Film/TheWizardOfOz Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!]]" topped the charts.
* Speaking of Chilean dictator UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, in spite of his various atrocities, he is still well regarded today among some conservative and alt-right circles, both inside and outside Chile, for his introduction of neoliberal economic reforms and aggressive persecution and even killings of socialists and communists, as seen by the "free helicopter rides" memes floating around the sewers of the internet. The fact that his economic experiments caused a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_1982 major economic crisis]] requiring government intervention is often conveniently ignored.
* Romania had three flavors of personality cults in the 20th century: The monarchist Carol II, the fascist Ion Antonescu, and the communist Nicolae Ceaușescu. Despite their conflicting ideologies, all three are venerated in some form by Romanian nationalists today.
* UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela personally opposed cults of personality upon himself all his life, but this did not stop people venerating him as an anti-[[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra apartheid]] activist. Statues of him and schools and places named after him exist today both inside and outside South Africa. His neighbors Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe also maintain similar cults based on their reputation as anti-colonial fighters, and in the case of Mugabe was also considered by some as an African deity.

* Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of UsefulNotes/EquatorialGuinea, developed an extreme cult of personality, assigning himself titles like "Unique Miracle" and "Grandmaster of Science and Culture". His portrait was placed in every church, and priests were ordered to thank him before mass.

* An unintentional example appears in ''Film/Joker2019'', after Arthur kills three violent drunks on a train in self-defence (because they were beating him up). The lower-class public rallies behind the murders, since they were of wealthy [=WayneTech=] employees, and it is believed mistakenly that the killer was a vigilante that targets the rich. Arthur finds that his clown persona is idolized as a symbol of economic and social inequality in Gotham, and [[spoiler:once he completes his transformation into the Joker, comes to revel with his violent followers and the destruction they cause]].

** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with Prophet Muhammad in particular. There is an entire field known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith Hadith]] which involves recording and spreading Prophet Muhammad's words and actions, encouraging the Muslim Community to follow his advice and to follow him in his actions. Unlike most versions of the trope, they discourage depicting him in pictures and take it very seriously.

* The Soviet Union elevated their founder, Lenin, to almost divine stature. Countless statues, paintings, streets, cities were named after him. His corpse was mummified and put on permanent display in Moscow.

*** One of the more notable examples, this has been attempted (apparently successfully) by [[UsefulNotes Donald Trump]], who was the country's 45th president, to the point where after he lost the 2020 election, he railed over and over again that it was rigged against him, which his committed base then ate up. He then whipped up his supporters at a rally on January 6, 2021, leading to a mob of them breaching the Capitol building to try and stop the election certification for Joe Biden, causing a sizable amount of destruction and five deaths (one Trump supporter and four police officers). Even well after Biden was formally certified, his most rabid followers still believed that the election was illegitimate (even after election officials from ''both'' parties said the win was legitimate) and that he would be reinstated at some point in the near future. Even before that day, however, Trump had a rabid fanbase that disbelieved every news outlet except ones that Trump voiced his support for, claimed he had been sent by God to "save" America, and is the greatest president ever. Alongside Trump himself, conspiracy theories have also fueled this, particularly the [=QAnon=] conspiracy that alleges that the Democratic Party is full of Satanist cannibal pedophiles that Trump would arrest and have executed at any moment. Presently, the enduring belief among Trump's personality cult is that ''any'' problem in America today would be instantly fixed if he returned to power.

* Subverted with Cuba's two most iconic dictators, Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro. The two didn't bother cultivating personality cults for themselves, although unofficial ones formed anyway. Batista was referred to as 'My General' among his supporters and had statues of himself put up all across Cuba. Castro instead favored a cult of his fellow revolutionary Che Guevara, who himself is an almost messianic figure amongst many communists as an aspiration, and heavily promoting the existing personality cult of Cuban national hero, revolutionary poet Jose Marti. Castro officially forbid any personality cult of himself and banned the building of statues of him in Cuba, but it didn't stop the Communist Party from giving out portraits of him, putting his face on street art, or having government officials weep in the presence of Castro (who usually reacted by giving them one of his famous bear hugs.)

** After Sukarno's fall in 1966, Suharto also promoted his own cult of personality to a lesser extent. His regime exaggerated his military accomplishments and justified the genocidal massacres of Chinese-Indonesians and suspected communists that brought his to power, and like Sukarno, his propaganda were required reading for students. While Suharto's cult of personality was largely dismantled after his fall in 1998, many conservative politicians still attempt to revive his image as a strongman who defended his country from foreign interference.

* While not a politician ''per se'', the late [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Diana Spencer, former Princess of Wales]], was a widely beloved figure with not just the British public, but with the whole world over due to her extensive charity work, NiceGirl public persona (to the point of hugging AIDS patients at a time when people were still frightened of and ignorant of how the disease was spread), candid openness of her own struggles in interviews (such as her [[AwfulWeddedLife unhappy marriage to Prince Charles]] and mental health struggles) and [[TheBeautifulElite beautiful looks]]. Her untimely death via car crash in 1997 brought about a massive outpouring of grief from people all over the globe and she was posthumously described as "The People's Princess", being credited for being the face of a new generation of UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily.

* UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela personally opposed cults of personality upon himself all his life, but this did not stop people venerating him as an anti-apartheid activist. Statues of him and schools and places named after him exist today both inside and outside South Africa. His neighbors Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe also maintain similar cults based on their reputation as anti-colonial fighters, and in the case of Mugabe was also considered by some as an African deity.

* Francisco Macías Nguema, first president of Equatorial Guinea, developed an extreme cult of personality, assigning himself titles like "Unique Miracle" and "Grandmaster of Science and Culture". His portrait was placed in every church, and priests were ordered to thank him before mass.

** ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure:'' Dio Brando (or as he renamed himself, just ＤＩＯ) has such insane charisma, that he, despite being basically a recently awakened vampire in the contemporary world, with no money or occupations, obtained a large following alongside extensive monetary resources in a short amount of time. He has followers willing to die for him, to the point his most fanatical are willing to commit suicide on his word. His remaining right-hand man, Enrico Pucci was willing to orchestrate a complex plan that Dio entrusted him with alongside avenging his fallen friend's death. Dio's charisma is outright compared to Hitler's and other tyrants of history.

A cult of personality refers to the massive adulation of a political or historical figure. Website/TheOtherWiki defines it as "when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and, at times god-like public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise." Often the subjects of cults of personality are treated as gods, held responsible for the good things affecting a country, policies are tied to a certain figure and epoch. The cult may often claim outlandish accomplishments for the subject in order to bolster their popularity. On the other hand, heroic stories about the subject's life may be endlessly repeated in order to reinforce the cult.

** One of Duterte's predecessors, Ferdinand Marcos, also was the subject of a personality cult, and is portrayed as a war hero, a strong leader, and a wise man. Marcos was affectionately called as "Apo Lakay", meaning "Wise Elder" in the Ilocano language in which Marcos was a native speaker of. He was even portrayed together with his wife Imelda as a Filipino version of Adam and Eve (Malakas and Maganda), lit. Strength and Beauty in some official portraits, and once had a a monument of himself clearly intended to emulate Mount Rushmore. There is overlap between the supporters of Marcos and Duterte, due to the latter having a positive opinion of Marcos and had the former president be given a heroes' burial. His son, Bongbong Marcos, was elected as the President of the Philippines in 2022 and did his best to rehabilitate his late father's image.

** After Sukarno's fall in 1966, Suharto also promoted his own cult of personality to a lesser extent. His regime exaggerated his military accomplishments and justified the massacres against communists that brought his to power, and like Sukarno, his propaganda were required reading for students. While Suharto's cult of personality was largely dismantled after his fall in 1998, many conservative politicians still attempt to revive his image as a strongman who defended his country from foreign interference.

** More recently, UsefulNotes/XiJinping has been increasingly seen as attempting to foster this, under the guise of fighting corruption. A recent addition of the Chinese Constitution was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping_Thought Xi Jinping Thought]] where writings and speeches in China must adhere to what is liked by Xi Jinping and his party.

*** One of the more notable examples, this has been attempted (apparently successfully) by [[UsefulNotes Donald Trump]], who was the country's 45th president, to the point where after he lost the 2020 election, he railed over and over again that it was rigged against him, which his committed base then ate up. He then whipped up his supporters at a rally on January 6, 2021, leading to a mob of them breaching the Capitol building to try and stop the election certification for Joe Biden, causing a sizable amount of destruction and five deaths (one Trump supporter and four police officers). Even well after Biden was formally certified, his most rabid followers still believed that the election was illegitimate (even after election officials from ''both'' parties said the win was legitimate) and that he would be reinstated at some point in the near future. Even before that day, however, Trump had a rabid fanbase that disbelieved every news outlet except ones that Trump voiced his support for, claimed he had been sent by God to "save" America, and is the greatest president ever. Alongside Trump himself, conspiracy theories have also fueled this, particularly the [=QAnon=] conspiracy that alleges that the Democratic Party is full of Satanist cannibal pedophiles that Trump would arrest and have executed at any moment.

* In North Korea dictators Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-Il are worshiped as gods. Literally! There are giant statues of them everywhere and almost every activity is done in celebration of the "Great Leaders". Of course, their corpses are also mummified and put on display. The current leader Kim Jong-Un is venerated as the "Great Successor". Their familial succession has been compared to a monarchy.

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', the titular hero ends up with a fan club that evolves into one of these, calling themselves the "Chainsaw Man Church for World Peace". [[spoiler:The whole thing is revealed to be masterminded by [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse the Famine Devil]], and in order to quell their influence and retain control over the nation the [[PresidentEvil corrupt Japanese government]] tries to [[LeaveYourQuestTest strongarm Denji into retiring]].]]

* ''LightNovel/ExpectingToFallIntoRuinIAimToBecomeABlacksmith'': AllLovingHero Kururi, after being [[FrameUp wrongly imprisoned]] in a PenalColony, takes charge using AsskickingLeadsToLeadership and manages the prisoners so well and fairly that they develop what looks very much like a cult. He later gets given the prisoners by the Crown Prince, to help make a railroad through his domain, but since they can't get along with regular workers, he makes the prisoners his ArmyOfThievesAndWhores.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Katsuya, a {{Satire}} of the StockShonenHero, enters the story popular with his fellow young hunters and followed by a BattleHarem. When Viola asks the FemmeFatale Carol why she didn't try to seduce Katsuya despite having met him, Carol explicitly describes the friends around Katsuya as a cult which feels terrifying to deal with. This cult, mainly represented by the women who force their way into his unit, eventually extends to literally hundreds of hunters and dominates his PrivateMilitaryCompany Drankam. [[spoiler:This is the result of a PsychicLink network from him being an old world connector. The reason he developed this and not Akira, is because he's open hearted instead of paranoid. The link involves shared emotions to a degree and makes the people in it NotHimself. They fall unconscious when Katsuya dies, and most survivors form a RenegadeSplinterFaction bent on getting revenge on Akira.]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

-->"He's also a false god, which makes him kind of like a cult leader. So Creator/OscarIsaac and Simon Kinberg not only studied religion but also studied the nature of cults and how they function."

* In ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'', the denizens of Nazarick treat Ainz as an infallible GodEmperor, due to being programmed during their origins as [=NPCs=] to be loyal to the player members of the guild, of whom Ainz is the only one left. To his credit, Ainz is uncomfortable with the worship and keeps trying to encourage them to think more for themselves beyond automatically deferring to his will.

* Music/MichaelJackson is a notable non-political example. Quite a few pop stars have been elevated to legendary proportions by their fans, especially if they died relatively young -- Music/ElvisPresley was the most prominent example for decades, followed closely by John Lennon. But Jackson ''actively'' cultivated this trope in his lifetime, pushing the ForcedMeme of "The King of Pop" and casting himself as a great humanitarian and FriendToAllChildren. (Consider [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c93o05SrWzE this.]]) Moreover, he encouraged fans to regard '''anything''' negative reported about him as nothing more than persecution by the [[StrawmanNewsMedia sinister mass media]]. This worked; after his death they went publicly berserk, and the mythologizing around him only continues to grow -- as do UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories and harassment/demonization of those perceived as his enemies (in particular, ''multiple'' people who have accused him of sexually abusing them when they were young boys). This reached the point where after the reevaluation of Jackson's public legacy that the ''Leaving Neverland'' documentary spawned in 2019, the man's cult of personality responded with such intensity that it drowned out the documentary and led to it and its claims falling by the wayside by the end of the year.

* ''Fanfic/TwoLetters'': The [[SketchySuccessor new Ladybug]] is [[HundredPercentAdorationRating widely admired]] throughout Paris, with everyone proudly declaring they support their heroine. Partly because her fanatic followers find anyone who ''doesn't'' do so ''extremely suspicious''. Ladybug is also more than happy to turn her fans against anyone who displeases her. When Bob Roth stops paying into her secret ProtectionRacket, a stray remark about how he "doesn't support her" wrecks his record empire; a sculptor who produced a statue she disliked was run out of town after she complained about how they made her look 'homely'.

** Josef Stalin's cult was more deliberately created and something which Stalin took great interest in promoting and preserving. Ships, [[{{Egopolis}} cities]], buildings, and a prize (the Order of Stalin, which was later renamed Order of Lenin) were named after him. After his death, Nikita Khrushchev made a process to de-stalinize the Soviet Union, so statues and cities were destroyed and renamed and only the cult of Lenin survived. Ironically in modern Russia, Stalin remains a cult figure for Russia nationalists, less for his socialist policies and more for his role in defeating Nazi Germany. Stalin privately expressed irritation with his own cult, and as per a well-known anecdote, mocked it in an exchange with his son:

** Post-war Japanese leaders mostly lacked appeals to personality due to their short lengths in office and relatively conservative positions. Only Shinzo Abe has attracted a significant following among Japanese nationalists aka Netto-uyoku due to his proposal at remilitarizing Japan, overhauling the Japanese economy, and assassination in 2022, making him a martyr for their cause.

** UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher is to UK Conservatives what Reagan is to US Republicans: beloved by Tories for her introduction of neoliberal policies, dismantling of "inefficient" public sectors through privatization, and aggressive confrontation of striking unionists and the Soviet Union. To various working class Britons as well as Welsh and Scots, she is pretty much the devil incarnate who dismantled the country's coal industry and their associated communities, and that's not mentioning her support of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and hostility towards LGBT Britons. Even her funeral divided the country: while she was given a £10 million state funeral in London, protesters flocked elsewhere to protest her legacy and held impromptu street parties, and the song "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!" topped the charts.
* Speaking of Chilean dictator UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, in spite of his various atrocities, he is still well regarded today among some conservative and alt-right circles, both inside and outside Chile, for his introduction of neoliberal economic reforms and aggressive persecution and even killings of socialists and communists, as seen by the "free helicopter rides" memes floating around the sewers of the internet.

** Josef Stalin's cult was more deliberately created and something which Stalin took great interest in promoting and preserving. Ships, [[{{Egopolis}} cities]], buildings, and a prize (the Order of Stalin, which was later renamed Order of Lenin) were named after him. After his death, Nikita Khrushchev made a process to de-stalinize the Soviet Union, so statues and cities were destroyed and renamed and only the cult of Lenin survived. Stalin privately expressed irritation with his own cult, and as per a well-known anecdote, mocked it in an exchange with his son:

* In North Korea dictators Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-Il are worshiped as gods. Literally! There are giant statues of them everywhere and almost every activity is done in celebration of the "Great Leaders". Of course, their corpses are also mummified and put on display. The current leader Kim Jong-Un is venerated as the "Great Successor".

** More recently, Xi Jinping has been increasingly seen as attempting to foster this, under the guise of fighting corruption. A recent addition of the Chinese Constitution was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping_Thought Xi Xinping Thought]] where writings and speeches in China must adhere to what is liked by Xi Jinping and his party.

* Josip Broz Tito fostered one for himself in Communist Yugoslavia as both the father of the socialist state ''and'' more importantly, a figure of South Slavic unity given the multiple ethnic groups within his state. In fact, his death and the demise of his personality cult gave one less thing for the Yugoslav peoples to agree on in the buildup to the Yugoslav wars. While not state enforced in any post-Yugoslav nation today, Tito still enjoys relative popularity for South Slavic and socialist "Brotherhood and Unity", a phrase popular in Yugoslavia.
* Hồ Chí Minh enjoys a personality cult to this day in Vietnam, though not as much for socialism (which isn't considered a priority in Vietnam anymore) as much as he is a revolutionary hero and Vietnamese patriot, ironically akin to how Americans would consider George Washington. Shrines to him can be found around the country. For cultural context: Vietnam's folk religion involves ancestor worship, and deification/canonization of military heroes. Trần Hưng Đạo, a general who successfully led resistance efforts against Yuan-Mongol armies, is a good example of a worshipped hero. Hồ's avuncular public image and politician/military leader status qualifies him for worship, as an honorary family member to the entire nation and as a savior from foreign domination. It hews closely to the "devotion to a saint" definition above. Similar to Lenin, he did not want to be mummified and put on display. His comrades promptly ignored his will, which stipulated that he was to be cremated and the ashes spread through the country so he could forever be with his family (i.e. the whole nation). The result is the Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum and Museum in Hanoi, which preserved his corpse, as well as his living space and workplace. It's a popular location for field trips nationally so that schoolchildren can be taught about his legacy, and adults who lived through the war can get a chance to see the man they fought for.

** UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher is to UK Conservatives what Reagan is to US Republicans: beloved by Tories for her introduction of neoliberal policies, dismantling of "inefficient" public sectors through privatization, and aggressive confrontation of striking unionists and the Soviet Union. To various working class Britons as well as Welsh and Scots, she is pretty much the devil incarnate who dismantled the country's coal industry and their associated communities, and that's not mentioning her support of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and hostility towards LGBT Britions. Even her funeral divided the country: while she was given a £10 million state funeral in London, protesters flocked elsewhere to protest her legacy and held impromptu street parties, and the song "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!" topped the charts.

* UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek had statues of himself put up all around Taiwan, which were mostly torn down after his death. The fact that numerous statues were set up to him was used as an argument that he wasn't a dictator- he actually publicly decried them later on, but darn it, people insisted on erecting statues to him all over the place. Chiang also had coins minted with his face on them, large portraits of himself put up whenever possible, and children were taught to laud him as the savior of the nation in schools. His son Chiang Ching-kuo emulated him to lesser success.

* In China, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong used to be the center of a major personality cult. Though still held in high regard and also mummified and put on display, the worship is not as fanatical as during his lifetime. In fact, much of the contemplation for Mao lies with nostalgia for the '50s and '60s from which those that grew up in that era would reminisce over the zealous cult that was developed during Mao's lifetime. His successor Deng Xiaoping deliberately avoided having further cults of personality forward, in order to prevent the disaster that was the Cultural Revolution.