The Real Sufferers of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome" Are His Supporters
The right has long accused Trump's critics of being blinded by hatred, but the truth is very different
This piece was first published in Byline Supplement March 2025. I’m republishing it now because the pattern it describes has only become more pronounced.
As Donald Trump again raises the prospect of U.S. control over Greenland, we are watching the same process repeat itself: an implausible claim is made, then softened, rationalised, and gradually treated as something that deserves serious consideration.
This piece is about that process - and why it is so corrosive to democratic reality.
This past weekend, the Orange Game Show Host now occupying the White House made a statement during one of his numerous press events that “we’re spending $200bn a year subsidising Canada” in reference to the trade deficit between the two countries.
Now, first off, the trade deficit between the United States and Canada is $63bn, not $200bn, so before we even get into the meat of this, the number itself is wildly incorrect. But more importantly - a trade deficit is not a subsidy.
This is basic, first-year economics. A trade deficit simply means a country buys more from another country than it sells to them. It’s not charity, it’s not a financial support package – it’s the result of economic decisions made by consumers and businesses. And yet, when I pointed this out on X/Twitter, the response wasn’t, “Oh, well, that’s a good point.”
Instead, it was an avalanche of people bending over backwards to defend what was objectively, demonstrably false. At first, the pushback was just people who didn’t understand trade. But then the real ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ kicked in.
“It’s not technically a subsidy, but you get what he meant.”
“Why are you so obsessed with the exact definition?”
“You’re just nitpicking to try and ‘own’ him.”
And my personal favourite:
“This is why you people lose.”
Not because I was wrong. Not because they could provide evidence to support Trump’s nonsense. But because, in the world of the MAGA faithful, winning is about defending Trump no matter what, even when he’s demonstrably making things up.
And this, right here, is the real ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’.
A Cult Built on “We Know What He Meant”
Back in 2016, when Trump first started spewing his incoherent, rambling nonsense, his supporters quickly developed a workaround for the fact that their leader was incapable of speaking with even the most basic level of clarity.
They started saying, “Don’t take him literally, take him seriously.”
It was a quote attributed to Anthony Scaramucci, among others, in 2016 and was used to justify the fact that Trump would regularly say things that were completely absurd, incorrect, or just straight-up fantasy.
It’s gaslighting on a historic scale. Trump says something completely insane; his followers know it’s wrong, but instead of admitting that their Dear Leader might not know what he’s talking about, they rewrite reality to fit his words. It would be one thing if this was just some internet weirdos doing mental gymnastics to defend their favourite TV star. But it’s not.
It’s the actual administration and now large sections of the media doing it too.
Which brings us to the complete, blithering idiocy of the second Trump term.
A Government Led by Delusion
At the time of writing this column, it’s been just over 50 days since Trump was reinstalled into the White House, and the sheer level of shameless, flagrant nonsense coming out of his administration already makes his first term look tame.
Just in the past few weeks, we’ve seen:
His White House Press Secretary proving that she doesn’t understand tariffs, nor who will pay for them, when challenged by an Associated Press reporter – which is sort of important when you’re talking about trade policy.
His new government appointee, Elon Musk, using his position to have Trump himself sell Teslas from the White House south lawn. Trump, of course, saw no issue with this, because Musk shortly after pledged another $100m to Trump’s campaign shortly afterward. Nothing to see here, folks.
Trump has been openly and repeatedly suggesting that Canada should be annexed, because apparently, the biggest trade partner of the United States is actually just an unclaimed American colony.
It’s a level of delusion that, in any functioning democracy, would be met with absolute outrage, media scrutiny, and political consequences.
But in Trump’s America? His supporters will find a way to justify every single thing.
The same people who spent eight years screaming about Hunter Biden’s laptop are completely silent on Musk using his Government position for personal business.
The same people who spent four years demanding that Biden take a “cognitive test” are completely fine with Trump making speeches that sound like a man experiencing a medical emergency in real time.
The same people who screamed about the “Deep State” are fully backing Trump’s attempts to arrest his political opponents.
It’s not just hypocrisy. It’s complete, abject submission to one man’s delusions.
The Media’s Complicity in the Madness
It’s always worth reminding ourselves that Trump isn’t just blurting out nonsense for the sake of it – this is the playbook. Steve Bannon called it “flooding the zone with shit” – overwhelming the media with so many lies, scandals, and absurdities that the truth gets buried. And, once again, the press is playing along.
When Trump claimed a trade deficit was a subsidy, commentators didn’t say, “That’s an outright lie.” Instead, it was, “Well, what he meant was…”
When he again suggested buying Greenland, the coverage wasn’t “This is unhinged”, it was, “How would that actually work?”
When he used the White House to shill Teslas, the response wasn’t “This is blatant corruption,” it was, “Trump summons a wave of conservative support.”
This is what’s known as sanewashing – the press going to some lengths to make nonsense seem like strategic acuity. Jeff Bezos’s recent decision to have The Washington Post only champion “personal liberties and free markets”, effectively shutting down any dissent or opposing opinion, is a stark shift from “Democracy Dies in Darkness” to “Democracy Gets the Dimmer Switch Treatment”. Meanwhile, Trump’s people are openly threatening legal action against journalists using anonymous sources, because intimidation is easier than refuting facts.
This self-censorship isn’t just an American issue. Certain well-known British journalists do much the same – downplaying, rationalising, and presenting outright falsehoods as just Trump being Trump.
This is how democracy corrodes – not just through the lies, but through the institutions that allow them to flourish. And unless the press stops sanitising the absurd and starts treating Trumpism as the dangerous grift that it is, they will be complicit in whatever comes next.
The Real ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’
For years, the right has screeched about “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, claiming that his critics are so blinded by hatred they refuse to acknowledge his supposed brilliance. But the real Trump Derangement Syndrome isn’t found among his detractors – it’s what I experienced on X/Twitter these past days.
It’s the absolute, unwavering commitment to defending Trump’s lies, no matter how blatant. It’s the refusal to accept basic, empirical facts if those facts make Trump look bad. It’s an entire movement that would rather rewrite reality than admit he simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
And it’s not just the fanatics on social media. The Republican Party has fully transitioned from a political movement into a cult of personality, one that demands absolute, unquestioning loyalty to a man who at any other time in history would have been laughed out of the room. Instead, they contort themselves to justify, excuse, and rationalise whatever incoherent nonsense falls out of his mouth.
Trump is, and always has been, a conman, but the most dangerous thing about his second term isn’t his lies – it’s the fact that millions of people have decided the truth doesn’t matter.
America is trapped in a mass delusion, where facts are optional, winning means never admitting Trump was wrong, and reality itself is up for debate.
And the worst part?
It’s only going to get worse from here.
Thank you for reading.
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I have always thought TDS applies to his supporters who blindly follow and ' believe ' everything he says . The world is a very scary place right now . People who don't think so should watch the film the Dead Zone by Stephen King and tell me the presidential candidate doesn't remind them of Trump with his finger on that button .....
I’m beginning to wonder if he’s got a syphilitic brain.