I have Trump Derangement Syndrome. It is a syndrome I suffer, and perhaps, others who are infected by repeated exposures to the vile and characterless Trump and his minions.

I have TDS because of the despicable, contemptible, and dishonorable Truth Social post about Rob Reiner’s and Michele Reiner’s murder, doubled down in live video at the White House. Others also are being infected and are speaking out to ward off TDS and protect themselves – conservative Fox commentator Laura Ingraham, Jesse Waters’s interview of Trump supporter and actor, James Wood, Trump supporter Piers Morgan, a Turning Point USA spokesperson, Russell Moore of Christianity Today, Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of the National Review, and Charles C.W. Cooke, reporter from the same, and conservative commentator Erick Erickson. You can confirm all of this by searching online. You will likely find more people taking precautions against TDS.

TDS is a cumulative disease and infection that sucks all decency and democracy from the body politic. Think Harry Potter’s dementors.

I have TDS because Trump mocked and derided John McCain’s bravery and honorable service to our country.

I have TDS because Trump liberally uses foul language to disdain or ridicule people or countries he opposes.

I have TDS because Trump refers to himself regally in the third person.

I have TDS because Trump destroys the White House and tastelessly guilds it with gold.

I have TDS because Trump and the DOJ scrubbed any mention of Trump and refuses to release the Epstein files.

I have TDS because Trump gleefully exclaims that he can grab women sexually and has been convicted for the like.

I have TDS because when asked questions of import, Trump evades any knowledge or understanding by saying “I know nothing about it. Go ask ….”

I have TDS because Trump commands the DOJ to pursue baseless indictments against those he perceives as critical of him.

I have TDS because Trump and his hapless so-called Secretary of “War” Hegseth seek to court martial, with the threat of the punishment by death, Senator and former astronaut and Navy Captain Mark Kelly. Why? For speaking to and warning the military to disobey illegal orders. This is something said by Hegseth a few years earlier.

I have TDS because of Trump’s erratic foreign policy that exploits Ukraine in favor of Russia, his saber rattling in the Caribbean, while blustering and bragging he has mediated and stopped several wars.

I have TDS because of the misnomer called The Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) that has been buoyed by the mismanaged tariffs. Medicaid and SNAP benefits are being taken from millions of Americans. The middle class gets a Faustian tax bargain while the rich and corporations reap a windfall in tax breaks further exploding the deficit. To mitigate tariff troubles and BBB consequences, Argentina is given 80 billion to prop up their economy for beef production, US farmers are getting 12 billion for loss of soybean and other crop production because of the tariffs. Canada, a true and loyal neighbor, is threatened with annexation. Europe no longer shares intelligence with the US. As for the countries that relied on USAID? Thanks to Trump’s enabling of Musk, the poorest will starve and die at the hands of the world's richest man.

I have TDS because Trump mocks affordability. He advises tightening our belts while inflation, housing costs, unemployment, and grocery costs have increased under his watch, and health care costs will increase double or triple given the failure of Republicans to extend the ACA subsidies, another feature of the BBB.

I have TDS because of Trump’s and seething sycophant Stephen Miller’s secret police called ICE. We were told illegal criminals would be deported. In practice this has become a random and ruthless grabbing of people, mostly of brown and black hue skin color, without due process, summarily shackled and flown to remote countries or detained in deportation camps modeled from the odious historical examples of concentration camps.

TDS is a contagious condition that saddens and soils those exposed to it. The treatment and cure? Take showers, call it out, continue to protest, and vote out those who have caused and are complicit in its spread.

Jonathan Shutman

Ocean, NJ 07712