For years, MAGA has been mocking democrats using their oh, so clever, acronym, TDS. I secretly have to admit here that I was at first confused by their use of TDS because I could not figure out what exactly The Daily Show had to do with MAGA.
But enough about my mental shortcomings and back to their explanation of this acronym, which is that unless you’re part of the MAGA world, you’re deranged, specifically you have Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). Symptoms include “Trump-induced general hysteria, in which a person struggles to distinguish between legitimate policy and psychic pathology, which is expressed with verbal hostility or acts of aggression against Trump and his MAGA supporters.” Republicans even want to codify TDS as a mental illness, an “acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.” And in his rabid support of Trump, Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn recently drafted and introduced a bill that seeks to revise state law to include TDS as a form of real mental illness.
Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars. Where’s Musk and DOGE when you need them? However, there’s a hiccup with that ridiculous bit of proposed legislation right now as Sen. Eichorn was arrested for soliciting a minor for prostitution the same day he introduced the bill. Oops.
TDS has been flung as an insult to Democrats by the likes of Donald Trump and his sons, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Elon Musk, Lauren Boebert, Tom Cotton, Laura Trump, and just about everyone working at Fox News. This list could get huge, but I think you get my point. There’s a whole lot of “derangement” just in this short list. Why are Trump’s followers so deranged? Because Trump himself is deranged.
There are many examples to back this up, but the most recent one that comes to mind—although this changes on an hourly basis with every little “weaving speech” he makes—is when the 2024 World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, visited the White House earlier this month. Trump treated them with this amazing little word salad that I’m pretty sure no one will ever be able to decipher, including Trump.
“When you ran out the healthy arms, you ran out of really healthy, they had great arms, but they ran out, it’s called sports, it’s called baseball in particular, and pitchers I guess you could say in really particular.”
What? Is it possible that Google Translator might be able to make sense out of that? And I thought that Trump couldn’t possibly sound more deranged than the week before when he decided to define the word “groceries” to the world:
“It’s such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term: groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it. Groceries went through the roof, and I campaigned on that. I talked about the word ‘groceries’ for a lot. … It’s like an old-fashioned word but it’s a beautiful word, a very descriptive word. An old-fashioned word but really it’s not, and people understand it. The word ‘grocery,’ it’s a sort of simple word. But it sort of means, like, everything you eat. The stomach is speaking, it always does.”
Again, what?
With these deranged words of Trump in mind, it’s ironic that MAGA accuses Democrats of being deranged, but maybe they don’t actually know the definition of the word. Maybe the dictionary is on their list of banned books. But don’t ask Trump to define it because that would definitely involve yet another word scramble that would require months of therapy to unravel.
Merriam-Webster defines deranged as “mentally unsound; disturbed or disordered in function, structure or condition.” Hm, does that definition describe Democrats legitimately upset and worried that Trump is tanking the stock market, ruining our economy, destroying retirement savings, firing thousands of government employees, deporting legal immigrants, and now talking about deporting actual American citizens, and threatening and ignoring our Constitution and rule of law? Or is the definition of deranged closer to describing what Trump is descending into? Kind of like the madness of King George.
So, my conclusion is that it is no longer TDS but rather DTS, Deranged Trump Syndrome. If we’re going to speak in acronyms, let’s get them right. Δ
Margie Slivinske writes to New Times from Arroyo Grande. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Apr 17-27, 2025.
Charles Krauthammer originally coined the term Bush Derangment Syndrome, but history has proven that we were right, not deranged, in calling out the lies that resulted in the Iraq war. Like the fallacy “You’re being intolerant of my intolerance” calling dissent a derangement is part of a larger fascist strategy to demonize the opposition. When US citizens can be disappeared to foreign gulags, judges ignored and threatened and law firms and universities subject to extortion, how long before Trump’s political opponents start falling out of windows?
“Be careful what you wish for because you just may get it”.
Democrats should reflect upon whether or not they really want a political landscape without Donald Trump. With Trump on the scene, Democrats can alway count upon being able to whip a crowd into a lather with cries of “Trump! Trump!”, and to be able to count upon the automatic support for even the weakest Democratic candidates merely on the basis that they’re not Trump. All they had to do is brandish Trump as a sort of scary evil totem, and use him to drive the Democratic herd where they wanted it. Sort of a “political Chuckie”
But without the ability to use Trump as their “evil icon”, Democrats will be forced to form and articulate a coherent and appealing political platform. This will require the unenviable task of satisfying the crazed expectations of the progressive wing of the party, without scaring off the moderates. This will be especially difficult because the expectations of the various interest groups are often in competition with each other, such as trans advocates vs. feminists, or Jews vs. pro-Hamas Palestinians. These conflicts hurt the party in the last election, even with Trump available to distract attention from the inherent conflicts.
You’ll miss Trump.
John Donegan – it amazes me that you can make this statement with a straight face, “with Trump on the scene, democrats can always count on being able to whip a crowd into a lather with cries of Trump! Trump!” Not to mention your further statement, “brandish Trump as a sort of scary evil totem and use him to drive the democratic herd where they wanted it.” The Jan 6th riot on our Capitol wasn’t so long ago that you’ve forgotten how that scary evil crowd was whipped into a deadly frenzy by Trump, right? You did get something right though. Trump is definitely a “political Chuckie.” Good call 👍
Trust me on this: by the time he’s done with his 4-year fiefdom, no one will miss him.
John D:
They’re already attempting to foist AOC on us as the next presidential candidate. Funny thing is, no one else is endorsing her. Id rather see Tim Walz run again, at least he is a veteran (not that I’ll ever vote Democrat again). It’s nice not being wedded to a party, I’m free to criticize each one.