“Trump Derangement Syndrome”
The true meaning of the expression
In today’s New York Times you will find a long piece by Maureen Dowd on Graydon Carter, who is widely known in the magazine business as the co-founder of Spy, a now-defunct satirical monthly, and who had a twenty-five-year stint as editor of Vanity Fair.
At Spy Donald Trump was regarded as a “short-fingered vulgarian,” and in the Times piece there is this from Ms. Dowd about Carter’s time at Vanity Fair: “His job helming Vanity Fair entailed meeting a lot of narcissists, but he calls Mr. Trump ‘a narcissist in a class of his own’.” When Dowd reached out to Stephen Cheung, the White House communications director, for comment Cheung responded with this: “President Trump is beloved by America and sits in the Oval Office every single day making the country better, while Graydon Carter is a washed-up has-been who can barely put a coherent thought together because he suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his tiny brain.”
There are two obvious lies in that statement. For those who are currently seeing their retirement accounts go into a recession-flirting decline, Trump is not “making the country better,” and as for being “beloved by America,” try telling that to a) the 74,999,166 people who didn’t vote him in the 2024 election and b) to the many people who are now experiencing “buyer’s remorse.”
There are too many lies to count from the Trump years, from Trump saying that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 election (Russia did: “Russia, if you’re listening…”) to saying that he won the 2020 election (he didn’t) to saying that his 2024 win was a “landslide” (it wasn’t). He even lied about the attendance at his 2016 inauguration, saying that the crowd that showed up for him was bigger than the crowd for President Obama’s first inauguration:
But there’s a third lie in Cheung’s statement: the assertion that Carter — and anyone else who criticizes Trump — is suffering from “a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Really? It has always seemed obvious to me that it is Trump’s supporters, not his detractors, who are “deranged.” Take a look at what Jeffrey Guterman, a retired mental health counselor, had to say back in 2018:
Right? Here’s a person who was found liable for sexual abuse, university fraud, charity fraud, business fraud, made fun of a New York Times reporter who has a physical disability, stole classified documents, and a person who tried to overturn the 2020 election — and yet millions of people love the guy. Isn’t there something…deranged about such support?
Why would anyone elect a person who was found guilty of financial fraud to be the chief law enforcement officer in the land? Or to rephrase my question, why would millions of people vote for a convicted criminal as the person to make sure that the country’s laws are faithfully executed?
While we all contemplate that, take a look at this image. Do you find anything…deranged about it?
Or how about this woman and her Trump doll?
Or how about this pretend centurion?
What is the image below supposed to mean? Trump on a dinosaur with a John Wick–styled weapon? What is that all about?
I ask because I haven’t a clue. I have no idea why this guy went to the trouble and expense to get such a bizarre flag made. Is it due to Trump Derangement Syndrome? You tell me.
Barry Lyons is a freelance writer living in New York City. He’s also written about the Second Amendment, the Beatles, and the Indiana Jones movies.
