At a guess: US is compared to older/better-known authoritarian nation whose foot-soldiers are likened to American corp. media promoting “dear leader” red-state hero worship. But recent popularity of a sexy socialist political party has caused confusion in the ranks due to how unsexy the old red-state MAGA brand is right now by comparison.

Edit: analogy might be more clear if supreme leader portrait was re-labeled MAGA/Trumpism, GOP/Conservatives, or (really on-the-nose) Trump’s Agenda.