Minnesota bill labels Trump derangement syndrome as mental illness

A bill introduced in Minnesota seeks to revise state law to include "Trump derangement syndrome” as a form of mental illness.

The bill, introduced by five Republican state senators, would add the the syndrome — TDS, as President Trump and his supporters frequently refer to it — to the state’s definition of mental illness.

The bill defines TDS as “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,” it reads.

The legislation specifies that TDS can be expressed by “verbal expressions of intense hostility” toward Trump and by “overt acts of aggression and violence” against Trump supporters or against “anything that symbolizes President Donald J. Trump.”

The president has long invoked the fabricated diagnosis as a way to label his political opponents as mentally ill when they criticize him or express outrage in response to actions he has taken.

Trump has labeled many of his fiercest opponents as suffering from TDS, including his former chief of staff, John Kelly, who called the president a fascist, and former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who investigated Trump’s role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many of Trump’s Democratic opponents have similarly been labeled as having a case of TDS.

Minnesota State Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen (R), one of the GOP lawmakers who introduced the legislation, defended the bill as one addressing the “irrational behavior” carried out by Trump critics — not just their differing political beliefs.

“People of different political persuasions can differ when discussing issues. We should be able to have civil debates without demonstrating violent and unreasonable reactions such as burning down Tesla dealerships, threatening people who wear Trump hats or committing road rage at the sight of a Trump bumper sticker on a person’s car,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

“This irrational behavior is unacceptable in a civil society and suggests a deeper psychological problem. That is what this bill addresses, not mere political disagreements,” he added.

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer Labor (DFL) Party, affiliated with the national Democratic Party, holds a majority in the state, so the bill is unlikely to pass, though it has reportedly caused a stir in the state’s Capitol.

Gruenhagen acknowledged the bill’s dim prospects, adding in his post, “of course, we all know that the Democrats and Governor Walz will never allow this bill to pass anyway, so take a deep breath and calm down.”

Minnesota DFL Party spokesperson Darwin Forsyth issued a statement Monday about the bill: “This is why Minnesota Republicans have lost every statewide election in recent memory – every time they get an opportunity to try to improve Minnesotans’ lives, they instead double down on an agenda that caters to their party’s most extreme right-wing activists.”

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