Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Real And It’s Driving Therapists Crazy

The strange psychological anomaly first appeared in 2016 – Psychotherapists across the US and even Europe began reporting a sharp rise in patients with “anxiety” about the US elections and, specifically, a potential win by Donald Trump.  This “Trump Anxiety” was greatly exacerbated by the establishment media, which was relentless in their propaganda narrative painting Trump as the next “Hitler”; a racist, misogynist monster who was hellbent on “destroying democracy.”  

Another group that was feeding the national hysteria over a Trump presidency was psychotherapists.  At the time, Politico asserted that Trump’s “crude” behavior could give “new fuel to the charge that his candidacy might be normalizing aggressive, disparaging talk and behavior.”  They cited a manifesto published by 3000 therapists declaring “Trump’s proclivity for scapegoating, intolerance and blatant sexism a threat to the well-being of the people we care for…” 

The same therapists urged others in the profession to speak out against Trump, enumerating a variety of effects therapists reported seeing in their patients:

“That Trump’s combative and chaotic campaign has stoked feelings of anxiety, fear, shame and helplessness, especially in women, gay people, minority groups and nonwhite immigrants, who feel not just alienated but personally targeted by the candidate’s message…”

The manifesto also made a subtler point: that all the attention heaped on Trump is actually making it harder for therapists to do their jobs.  Why?  Ironically, they claimed that Trump’s campaign “legitimized the tendency of people to blame others for their fears and anxieties instead of taking responsibility…” 

That’s right, far-left therapists were accusing Trump of promoting projection and scapegoating – While those same therapists were projecting onto Trump and scapegoating him for the unhinged mental illnesses of their patients.  

This mindless and obsessive rage over Trump, MAGA and conservative culture in general has become so prominent and so easily identifiable that it now has a common name:  Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).  After Trump’s return in 2025, therapists once again report an uptick in Trump anxiety.  They have also revealed that the surge in Trump related fears is overwhelming many of them and causing “burnout.”

One therapist writing for US News in April noted:

“In just the last few months, we have exchanged COVID-19 tests for litmus tests on political beliefs. People are scrubbing their social media pages instead of scrubbing their hands to feel safe.  I understand that my patients want to recoil from the chaos. The combination of depression and anxiety is palpable as people try to move forward but have no road map. And as law firms and universities capitulate to the demands of the administration, individuals feel increasingly powerless and helpless. But we must find ways to fight this despair lest we become paralyzed…” 

You might think therapists would be more inclined to question their own hysteria and find a more balanced view, but clearly this is not the case.  In spring of this year, the National Association of Scholars admitted that therapists were “in crisis” over Trump’s election win and that they had lost their objectivity.

“…Our field is gripped by a collective complex triggered by Trump’s win—a fixation so overwhelming it risks overshadowing the real, immediate concerns of our clients’ lives.”

“…What the post-election reaction exposes is that political bias among psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, and social workers is reaching a critical point. Many in the general public remain unaware of these tensions, but they could have a profound effect on the therapeutic process, potentially skewing the focus away from clients’ individual needs and toward a broader, politically charged narrative.”

At least one psychotherapist is finally acknowledging that Trump Derangement Syndrome exists and that it is the fault of patients, not the fault of Trump.  He says that at least 75% of his patients are obsessed with Trump and project their life problems onto the President. 

Jonathan Alpert, whose office is out of Manhattan, also argues that psychotherapists are actually encouraging TDS and irritating the condition by politicizing their therapy sessions. 

“This is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far to call it the defining pathology of our time,” Alpert said.

It’s important to understand that 2016 was perhaps the height of the liberal order.  Coming off of 8 years of Barack Obama and the rapid spread of third-wave feminism, the woke left believed themselves invincible.  Like a spoiled child that has throws a tantrum because she knows the parents will relent and give her whatever she wants, Zennial feminists and progressives grew up in an America where their ideology was rarely is ever questioned.  

Their delusions led them to believe that they were the overt majority of the population.  They thought that their movement was absolute and that political power was theirs to claim without substantial opposition. 

It’s not that Trump has any uniquely dark or evil effect on people, this idea is absurd.  Instead, Trump has come to symbolize an uncomfortable wake-up call for leftists:  They are not the majority.  The world does not belong to them.  Their power is not guaranteed.  They don’t get to do whatever they want whenever they want, and, in fact, they are going to have to obey certain historical (conservative) boundaries if they want to function in society. 

This realization has driven them to madness.  An eternal temper tantrum.  A mental breakdown that compels their every feeling and action. 

Trump, like him or not, represents a social and political reckoning that is absolutely necessary.  Children need to wake up from their fantasies and delusions.  Children need to grow up.  TDS is the political left’s struggle to avoid growing up; to avoid accepting the reality that they do not run the world.