Should Trump Derangement Syndrome be Considered a Mental Illness?

There are far stranger conditions that are recognized.

Should Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) be classified as a mental illness or psychological disorder? Some lawmakers believe so. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) recently introduced the Trump Derangement Syndrome Research Act of 2025.

“TDS has divided families, the country, and led to nationwide violence – including two assassination attempts on President Trump,” Davidson told the Daily Mail in a statement. “The TDS Research act would require the NIH [National Institute of Health] to study this toxic state of mind, so we can understand the root cause and identify solutions.” He continued:

“Instead of funding ludicrous studies such as giving methamphetamine to cats or teaching monkeys to gamble for their drinking water, the NIH should use that funding to research issues that are relevant to the real world.”

Trump Derangement Syndrome and Political Polarization

The bill defines Trump Derangement Syndrome as “intense, irrational emotional or cognitive reactions to President Donald J. Trump, his actions, or his public presence.” Among other things, the NIH would be tasked with studying this state of mind as well as trying to track down Patient Zero. Any idea who that might be?

Trump isn’t the only president to have “derangement syndrome” attached to his more energetic opposition. In 2003, columnist Charles Krauthammer coined the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome”; in 2008, conservatives used “Obama Derangement Syndrome”; and in 2016, both parties sometimes used the term “Clinton Derangement Syndrome.”

Unfortunately, political polarization is rather common in America. Therapy Group of DC mentioned similar rhetoric against Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. “In every cycle, a president’s presence sparks vocal expressions—tweets, protest chants, heated dinner-table rants—and sometimes overt acts like unfriending relatives, boycotting businesses, or skipping holiday visits.” However, most might agree that Trump Derangement Syndrome is more prevalent and vicious than in previous presidencies. The chief executive probably had it right when he said that no matter what he did, even if he cured cancer, Democrats still would not support him.

No one knows for certain why people develop such an intense fervor against a commander-in-chief, so much so that they wear blinders and see only the negative in everything. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X in April that “Trump Derangement Syndrome is causing Democrats & the media to oppose President Trump’s commonsense efforts to cut billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse from our federal government.” She added: “They can’t stand that we finally have a President who actually delivers on his promises.”

During an interview on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) podcast, the senator asked Elon Musk why people hated him and Trump so much, and the billionaire responded: “Well, because we’re clearly over the target. If DOGE was ineffective, if we were not actually getting rid of a bunch of waste and fraud and a bunch of that fraud, I mean, the fraud we’re seeing is overwhelmingly on the left. I mean, it’s not zero on the right, but these NGOs are almost all left-wing NGOs that are being funded.”

But is it all just about being upset with a political party or a particular president? A March 2023 commentary by sociologist Musa al-Gharbi found that conservatives tend to be happier and more well-adjusted than liberals, as Liberty Nation News National Correspondent John Klar wrote in his article, “Political Extremism and the Brain.”

“It’s possible that genetics and biology could explain much of the observed relationship between liberal identification and mental illness,” Klar quoted. He explained further, “Thus, the root causes of TDS might not be political at all, but rather a side effect of the core worldview and mental state that leads to a leftist alignment. A symptom, rather than the underlying illness itself, so to speak.”

The American Psychological Association identifies politics as a major stressor, with one study revealing that as many as 40% of Americans say politics is a major source of stress, and up to 20% admitted they lost sleep over political news.

We’ve seen the extremes to which those allegedly suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome have gone: screaming at the sky, threatening to move to another country, vandalizing Teslas and threatening the vehicle owners, etc. While some may scoff at the idea of confirming TDS as a mental illness or psychological disorder, they might want to look at some of the other illnesses out there. For example:

• Stendhal Syndrome: When someone panics, dissociates, or hallucinates in the presence of a lot of art in one place, especially art considered emotionally powerful or overwhelmingly beautiful.
• Clinical Lycanthropy: When a person has the delusional belief that they are transforming into, or have already transformed into, an animal, most famously a werewolf.
• Folie a Deux: A psychiatric condition in which two people share the same delusional beliefs, usually because one person with a psychotic disorder “transmits” their delusions to someone close to them, usually between relatives or people closely associated.
• Paris Syndrome: People who suffer extreme disappointment after seeing Paris and it does not live up to their expectations. It’s a rare but real condition, and the afflicted suffer hallucinations, dizziness, anxiety, and more.

After looking at some of these other conditions, maybe Trump Derangement Syndrome doesn’t seem so far-fetched after all.