Most people reflexively do whatever an "authority" figure tells them to do, few, or no, questions asked.
Ask the folks who shuffled onto the trains to Auschwitz, ask people who drank Jim Jones' special Kool-Aid, how well that authority compliance reflex, coupled with a good dose of Normalcy Bias," worked out for almost all of them.
Some of the scumbags who foisted the lockdowns on the West privately predicted ~25% compliance with mask mandates. It was closer to 85%. ‘Nuff said.************
I think the biggest reason people acquiesced to the mask mandate wasn’t so much brainwashing as it was their knowledge of mankind’s greatest fear: DEATH. It was heavily implied that NOT wearing a mask was taking a ‘huge risk’ in contacting COVID and that would lead.to certain death.
What they’ll need to tap into with Trump is a fear of ‘something’ that will happen if he walks free and is re-elected President, and convince the non-thinking sheep of this “fact” (whatever it is).