Thursday, March 13, 2025

Trump Derangement Syndrome

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

 

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-12-2025

 

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