One moment they're posting threads demonstrating their love for this con man, the next they're saying we're obsessed. These are the Manson Girls. They're just gone. All we can do right now is observe.
I'm still not sure what the driver is here. Maybe it's a combination. There is the celebrity component, there is the authoritarian component, there is the revenge component, and there is (amazingly, somehow) the religious component. I don't know how, but like any cult leader, he fills a huge hole for them, and in return they will forgive and ignore anything for him.
There are just people who know how to do that. It's like an innate skill they have. They find a gaping hole in people's hearts/lives/souls and take its place.