Minnesota State Senators Introduce Bill Seeking To Add ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ to List of Official Mental Illnesses

Minnesotans having trouble with President Trump’s actions may be able to seek psychiatric care for their troubles if a new disorder — Trump Derangement Syndrome — is added to the list of diagnostic codes on mental health.The legislation, while posted in the Minnesota Legislature’s bill summary, will be referred Monday to the Committee on Health and Human Services.“‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ means the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior,” reads the legislation introduced by five Republican senators. The disorder, also known as “TDS,” may be distinguishable in patients through “verbal expressions of intense hostility toward President Donald J. Trump” or “overt acts of aggression and violence against anyone supporting President Donald J. Trump or anything that symbolizes President Donald J. Trump,” the bill reads.The legislation aims to update Minnesota’s statutes on mental illness. Mental illness is described in the legislation as “an organic disorder of the brain or a clinically significant disorder of thought, mood, perception, orientation, memory, or behavior … that seriously limits a person’s capacity to function in primary aspects of daily living such as personal relations, living arrangements, work, and recreation.”The bill was introduced by Senators Eric Lucero. Steve Drazkowski, Nathan Wesenberg, Justin Eichorn, and Glenn Gruenhagen. Republican Representative Bill Davis announced that he is co-authoring the House version. “I’m not prepared to talk about it right now,” Mr. Drazkowski said when asked by the Sun about the legislation. The language in the legislation borrows from the late Charles Krauthammer, who coined the term Bush Derangement Syndrome in 2003. Mr. Krauthammer, a board certified psychiatrist who conducted research for the Carter administration before becoming a conservative columnist, revisited the term in 2017 to apply to Mr. Trump’s critics.“What distinguishes Trump Derangement Syndrome is not just general hysteria about the subject, but additionally the inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences on the one hand and signs of psychic pathology on the other,” he wrote.In 2019, Psychology Today ran an article saying that while TDS is not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible of mental health providers, that does not mean it’s not real.“Such forms of highly emotional reaction could be something akin to the fainting and screaming characterizing American Beatlemania in the 1960s. Unlike the Beatles, however, the extreme emotional reaction alleged to characterize TDS is not based on adoration and admiration, but on fear and loathing,” reads the article.It’s unlikely that the bill will pass considering the 67-member Minnesota Senate is overwhelmingly Democratic. On the 134-member House side, Minnesota voters held a special election earlier this month to fill a vacant seat, tying membership to a 50-50 split.

Minnesota State Senators Introduce Bill Seeking To Add ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ to List of Official Mental Illnesses

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