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Donald Trump is omnipresent. To an extent that no US president did before him, Trump makes new headlines every day. Even more – for tumults on the political world stage. The camps are divided into two. Some celebrate Trump for his way of making politics (or rather: deals). This fulfills the others with concern, amazement, outrage or anger. In any case, Donald Trump offers plenty of criticism in his second term. To put on this criticism, Trumpist: Inside, gladly use the expression “Trump of the Syndrome”.
Trump Derangement Syndrome: What is behind it?
The Trump Derangement Syndrome (in German, for example: “Trump-Damsminds syndrome”) is a term that is intended to devalue negative reactions to Trump as hysterical and unreasonable. The term, often abbreviated as TDS, is also used by prominent Americans: inside like the moderator Sean Hannity or Trump’s former press spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The Indian-American author, journalist and political scientist Fareed Zakaria describes TDS as a “so intense hatred of Trump that he affects the judgment”.
CNN journalist Chris Cillizza defined TDS as “the preferred name of Trump defenders in order to present critics of the ex-president as driven by blind hatred”.
In the meantime, the term is also used by Trump’s opponent: inside. For example, to criticize those Trump supporters: on the inside that consistently ignore his mistakes and support him unconditionally. After all, the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” can also be easily understood. Namely, in such a way that it is not the critics: inside, but the president himself, is assumed to be mad or loss of reality.
The origin of the term
Maga supporters have not invented the concept of the Trump Derangement Syndrome: not on the inside, but only adapted. Originally, he comes from the conservative columnist and psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer, who shaped the “Bush Derangement Syndrome” in 2003-and thus said an irrational rejection of the then US President George W. Bush, who in his eyes made every reasonable discussion impossible. Later, Bush’s successor Barack Obama was used to use the concept of the Syndrome.
The term was transferred to Donald Trump for the first time in the mid-2010s when his opponents showed strong emotional reactions on his statements and actions before his first term. Since then, TDS has been used by both Trump supporters and critics: on the inside.