The term Trump Derangement Syndrome was invented by Trump’s supporters during his first term to dismiss any and all concerns over his policies, actions and many lies. They brushed such concerns off as just liberal hysteria; implying that if you think Trump is crazy then you must be crazy.
In a March 7 NYT article Michelle Goldberg argues that
the term Trump Derangement Syndrome more aptly fits those who were, and still
are, assuring America that Trump is sane, logical, and that his policies are
good for America and the world.
Goldberg gives some examples (and I added a few of my
own) of things that people feared Trump might do which were scoffed at as simply
absurd liberal hysteria, or in other words, Trump Derangement Syndrome:
·
Blanket
pardons for January 6 insurrectionists
·
Making Robert
F Kennedy Jr. secretary of health and human services
·
Pulling
military support for Ukraine and withdrawing from NATO
·
Imposing
20% tariffs on foreign goods
·
Crashing
the stock market
Each of these predictions was met with “He wouldn’t do
that” “Impossible” or “He’s just bluffing”. And you know how these turned out.
Goldman said this rejection of reality was partly
dishonesty and partly amnesia with a large measure of self-deception. People
who refuse to see Trump for what he really is are really the ones with Trump
Derangement Syndrome.
Some of the things Trump has now done would have been dismissed
as ridiculous just a few months ago had anyone actually predicted he might do
them:
·
Destroy
USAID
·
Put Kash
Patel in charge of the FBI
·
Side with
Putin in the Ukraine war
·
Stop sharing
intelligence with Ukraine
·
Stop monitoring
Russian intelligence operations in America
·
Make an
enemy out of Canada so the national anthem is booed at hockey games
·
Arrest someone
without charges for peaceful legal protests against a policy Trump supports
Goldberg ends by quoting Jeff Bezos speaking about
Trump: What I’ve seen so far is he is
calmer than he was the first time – more confident, more settled.”
Goldberg: “Sounds
like Trump derangement syndrome to me.”
Here is a better example
of Trump Derangement Syndrome courtesy of TCinLA. Laura Ingraham was talking on
Fox News Wednesday about President Trump and the crashing stock market.
She played a clip where
Donald Trump said “Financially we’ll be stronger than ever before. I think
the markets are gonna soar when they see what’s happening, and I want to tell
you this, tremendous optimism out there about our country in terms of
regulations being cut, in terms of taxes being cut.”
After the clip Ingraham gushed: “Isn’t it great to have an optimistic president who has a real plan
to make life better for Wall Street and Main Street? Just ignore the sky is
falling reports … because … they know Trump is good for business.”
Now there is a serious case
of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
This is the same tactic used by authoritarian governments everywhere. Heather Cox Richardson in her substack post yesterday (March 12) quoted Former representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) “In my graduate thesis, I quoted a hardline communist official from Poland in the 1950s who was asked about terrible shortages of food and housing. He said people had to sacrifice and “if that’s what it takes to prove the superiority of socialism, it’s worth it.”
It reminds me of the quote
by Chico Marx (dressed as Groucho in the scene) from the 1933 movie Duck Soup: “Who
are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”
Source
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/opinion/republicans-trump-derangement-syndrome.html
https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/poking-around-on-the-seventh-thursday
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-12-2025
Agree
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