Former president blames January 6 allegations on ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’

Trump uses phrase to explain ‘Insurrection Card’ claims against him to Truth Social followers

(AFP via Getty Images)

It was a phrase used to mock and try to silence Donald Trump’s myriad of critics while he was in the White House.

Republicans and MAGA supporters delighted in their attribution of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) alongside memes and merchandise that celebrated the drinking of “liberal tears.”

The twice-impeached president’s 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden could have seen an end to the worn phrase.

But it lives on.

It has generally been used to belittle the mainstream media and opponents of Mr Trump on the left for hysterically reacting to anything done by the former reality TV star during his political career.

And it appears that with the House select committee on the January 6 riot well underway, that Mr Trump himself is not quite done with it yet.

“Well, the “crazed” (I’m leading in all the polls!) Democrats are coming at me on all fronts,” he posted on Truth Social on Monday.

“Even after years of beating them back on their lame-brained and fully debunked schemes of Russia, Russia, Russia, TWO Fake Impeachments, the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report and, to top it all, illegally spying on my campaign (& me!), including while I was in the Oval Office, they are now playing the ridiculous Insurrection Card - Same “sick” people each time. I guess it must be ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’”

Mr Trump has been quick to roll out the phrase whilst under attack from opponents.

The then-president made textbook use of TDS in his wild six-page letter to Nancy Pelosi in 2019, in which he blasted the House Speaker as the House of Representatives moved towards his first impeachment over Ukraine.

“Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening. Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College landslide (306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat,” he wrote.

“You have developed a full-fledged case of what many in the media call Trump Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it!”

The phrase has also been at the heart of some entertaining political spats, not directly involving Mr Trump.

Last November Senator Ted Cruz invoked TDS in an attack on Representative Liz Cheney, during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

Mr Cruz told the right-wing host that Mr Trump had “broken” and “just shattered” the lawmaker from Wyoming, who has become one of the most outspoken critics of the former president.

“She hates Donald Trump so much that it just has overridden everything in her system,” he said.

”She’s lashing out at Trump and Republicans and everything, and she’s become a Democrat, and it’s sad to watch what has happened. It is Trump derangement syndrome,” said Mr Cruz.

Ms Cheney was savage in her response, telling CNN that Mr Cruz should perhaps have stood up for his wife in the face of attacks about her looks by Mr Trump during the 2016 GOP primary.

Mr Trump had also attacked Mr Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, and brought up a National Enquirer story linking him to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John F Kennedy.

“Trump broke Ted Cruz,” Ms Cheney told the network. ”A real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution.”