By SIMINA MISTREANUTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China is moving to strengthen its alliances with other countries as a counterweight to President Donald Trump’s trade war, presenting a united front with Latin American leaders a day after China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day truce in their tariffs st...
By Jesus is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, his focus is reporting on politics, current affairs and trending news. He has covered current affairs, healthcare, pop culture, and sports.
What Is Trump Derangement Syndrome?
Ah yes — Trump Derangement Syndrome (or TDS for the acronym-loving among us). Coined sometime around 2017 by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, TDS was originally meant to describe a specific kind of irrational, all-consuming hatred for Donald J. Trump. Krauthammer, a psychiatrist by training and an opinion columnist by trade, defined it as:
"A condition in which a person’s reaction to Donald Trump’s every action or statement is so intense that it clouds their ability to think rationally about objective reality."
In layman’s terms: someone could declare 2+2=4, but if Trump said it, certain folks would immediately call it fascist math.
And like any good internet-born phrase, it quickly spiraled out of control.
Who Uses It — And Why?
Conservatives and Trump supporters wield the term like a rhetorical sledgehammer. It’s a way to dismiss critics as irrational, unhinged, or incapable of viewing Trump objectively.
Example: “Oh, you didn’t like that speech? Classic TDS.”
Liberals and anti-Trump moderates, meanwhile, sometimes flip the term back — or argue that what’s being called “derangement” is actually a normal, proportionate response to abnormal behavior from a head of state who retweeted Mussolini quotes and suggested injecting disinfectant.
It’s political theater at its finest: everyone’s got a diagnosis, nobody’s got a medical license.
The Memeification of Mental Health Language
Let’s get one thing straight: TDS isn’t a real clinical diagnosis. It exists in the same lexiconic space as terms like Karen, snowflake, or gaslighting — catchy, overused, and often weaponized in bad faith.
The problem? We’ve memed mental health language into oblivion. Calling someone “deranged” because they dislike a politician? Kinda misses the point of mental health discourse, no? It reduces complex sociopolitical anxieties and critiques to playground insults.
Also: no one’s ever called out Biden Derangement Syndrome with the same frequency. Wonder why.
TDS in the Wild
Let’s survey some iconic moments of alleged Trump Derangement Syndrome in action:
Kathy Griffin’s infamous severed-head photo (2017): Critics called it art; supporters screamed TDS.
The obsession over Trump’s fast-food White House dinners: Like, yeah it’s weird, but is it world-ending? People reacted like he served Soylent Green.
The over-analysis of Trump’s every tweet: Yes, they were deranged. But so were the nightly panels devoted to decoding them like they were ancient prophecies.
On the flip side:
Fans dismissing any legitimate concern (e.g., inciting a literal insurrection) as “TDS” showed how the term became a deflection tacticIs TDS a Double-Edged Sword?
You bet.
The phrase works both as a convenient political cudgel and a warning sign of hyper-polarization. Dismissing genuine concerns as mental instability? Not great for civic discourse.
But letting every minor, objectively harmless Trumpism ruin your day? Also not healthy.
TDS is a case study in how online culture, partisan media, and internet memes have melted serious debate into snarky hashtags.
Is It Over Now That He’s Out of Office?
Not quite. TDS lives on in culture wars, Truth Social hot takes, and late-night monologues. Even Trump-free news cycles get accused of it because his name still haunts the algorithms.
The fact that we’re still talking about it in 2025 kinda proves the syndrome wasn’t just about Trump — it was about America’s inability to process populist figures without turning them into either messianic saviors or comic book super-villains.
Final Diagnosis
Trump Derangement Syndrome is less a mental condition and more a symptom of the modern attention economy.
It reveals how the American brain — exhausted by politics-as-entertainment — got stuck in a cycle of outrage dopamine hits and snarky deflection.
And if we’re being honest?
We probably all had a little TDS now and then.
💡 TL;DR:
TDS is a term coined by Charles Krauthammer to mock irrational hatred toward Trump.
It's since been weaponized by both the right and the left.
It represents how internet culture reduces complex politics to memes.
It’s still alive and kicking even post-presidency.
The real derangement? Letting bad-faith labels stop real conversations.
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