Listen to the newly available Fox News articles as Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. discussed Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) last week. Speaking with podcaster Adam Carolla, Kennedy stated that not only is TDS real, but suggested it could receive an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code. Although his remark was partly in jest, Kennedy underscored the intense feelings it provokes, even within his family.
Supporting these claims, psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert argued that TDS affects 75% of his liberal patients in Manhattan, describing it as a significant psychological issue. Alpert remarked, “People are obsessed with Trump…and talk about features of this disorder. They can’t sleep. They feel traumatized by Mr. Trump. They feel restless.”
President Donald Trump, during an executive order signing with the Navy Midshipmen football team in the White House, Washington, D.C., March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Kennedy and Alpert agree that TDS is real but differ on its root causes. They suggest it’s not just an individual disorder, but a form of mass hysteria. Unlike a disease one can treat with a vaccine or therapy, such hysteria requires systemic change to the circumstances promoting it. This context resembles issues like the “trans identity” problem, influenced more by external factors than internal ones.
Mass hysteria shows four distinct signs: belief in a specific cause for symptoms, absence of underlying conditions causing those symptoms, abnormal behavior, and extreme fear of exaggerated threats. The intense fear of Trump, fueled by hysterical media, presents these characteristics.
President Donald Trump attending an event in the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2026. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The media’s portrayal, from late-night TV to sports programs, perpetuates TDS, presenting Trump as an all-encompassing threat. Historically, the term ‘bogeyman’ emerged from stories to scare British children about Napoleon Bonaparte. Now, adults view Trump as a similarly existential threat, leading to severing ties with loved ones who support him.
Advice columns and social media further normalize this separation as a moral duty. A study by a Trump-aligned pollster highlighted a political shift among educated, wealthy White women to the left, reflecting the broader social implications.
Addressing TDS requires tackling the media narrative that fuels the hysteria. Historical mass hysteria episodes like the Salem Witch Trials show such phenomena eventually subside. Addressing media biases may hasten TDS’s resolution.
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