How I Caught TDS and Why I Refuse to Get Better

This commentary is a repost from “Sex on Wednesdays” by Martha Kempner on Substack. Find her other articles on The Queen Zone here.

As you can imagine, my social media is a bit of a liberal echo chamber. My close friends and family are in rabid agreement on almost all political issues. (Though rabid agreement can also make for dinner table arguments.) I don’t even have a MAGA uncle. I do, however, have a few Trump-supporting high school friends—some of whom I barely remember, some of whom I dated—who pop up on my feed.

I made the mistake of debating one of them during the election and was called “an angry elf with TDS.”  I had never heard of TDS and was getting in the car when I read the comment. I asked my 14-year-old to look it up while I drove to her the dentist. She laughed as she read the Wikipedia entry for Trump Derangement Syndrome. Essentially, I am so upset by Donald Trump’s very existence that I irrationally hate everything he does. 

Pretty much on the nose except for the irrational part, IMHO.

What Is Trump Derangement Syndrome, Really?

Apparently, this is something his supporters have been accusing the left of for years. Wikipedia describes it as a “pejorative term” and way of “reframing the discussion by suggesting that his opponents are incapable of accurately perceiving the world.” There was even a peer-reviewed study done on the topic in 2021. Of course, the results don’t say what my high school boyfriend would like them to say.

The authors concluded: “Results of the current study do not support the broad existence of so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome” on the left, but they may lend credence to accusations that some Trump supporters have a cult-like loyalty to the 45th president.” 

When Fantasy Becomes Legislation

That hasn’t stopped a group of Minnesota Senate Republicans from trying to make it a real thing. They recently introduced a bill to codify TDS as a mental illness. Obviously, these lawmakers are not in charge of the official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (so good luck getting my insurance to cover my TDS treatment), but they would like this new problem added to the state’s lists of mental health disorders.

The proposed legislation defines the illness a little differently than Wikipedia. It calls it “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.” It goes on to say that TDS “produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior.”

Which is more likely: that 74,999,166 people who voted for the other woman are all suddenly paranoid or that the 77-year-old guy who can no longer form a complete sentence, forgets how to use his mouth, and inexplicably danced on stage for 30 minutes instead of talking actually has some psychic pathology?

The Danger of Calling Dissent “Crazy”

The introduction of this bill is silly, but it’s also insidious. Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy put it this way:

“If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues. If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president.”

Murphy hit the nail on the head. “He’s not wrong, you’re just crazy,” is the ultimate deflection of criticism.

Trump is a thin-skinned, know-nothing narcissist who wants to be a dictator. He hates criticism so much that his entire second term appears to be based on revenge. The five MN Senators are kiss-ass, attention-seeking, peons, who want a seat at the grown-up table. I’d say they should be ashamed of themselves for this blatant brown-nosing, but they’d just turn that around and say I don’t get it because I am delusional.

And Yet, Projection Reigns Supreme

Of course, one of them really should be ashamed of himself. State Sen. Justin Eichorn (R-Grand Rapids) was arrested in Bloomington after trying to solicit sex from an uncover cop pretending to be a 16-year-old girl. I’m not a psychologist, but I think a 40-year-old man trying to have sex with a teenager is displaying some psychic pathology.  As the story below shows, it’s always the one you most expect. 

Republicans and Democrats alike are calling for Eichorn to resign. His TDS bill probably won’t make it onto the floor because even that requires bipartisan agreement in Minnesota right now. And if by any wild chance it passed the Senate, in which Dems have a one vote advantage, Gov. Tim Walz would veto it.

For those wondering if I commented back after being called an angry elf with TDS, of course I did, and I’m still proud of my response: “Thanks for the accurate diagnosis, but did you have to bring my height into this?”