The Real Trump Derangement Syndrome

According to a recent poll, seventy nine percent of Trump supporters approve of the President’s handling of the Russia situation even after a press conference in Helsinki alongside Dragon Energy brother Vladimir Putin that, according to your perspective, represented the most unconscionable foreign policy blunder in American history or pretty much a typical day in office for Trump, no more, no less. 

I was not surprised to discover that a sizable majority of Trump’s cultists still co-sign his approach to Russia even after his own party, and his own state propaganda organ (Fox News) sharply criticized Trump for standing before the world and stammer-mumbling that a murderous dictator who almost assuredly has killed people with his bare hands (the man was in the KGB, for fuck’s sake, where they probably murder people during the office Christmas party) had given him his solemn word that, despite Trump’s own intelligence people’s very strong assertions that Russia had illegally meddled in the 2016 elections, Russia was totally innocent, and that was apparently good enough for him. 

An unethical businessman/politician with deep, disturbing and long-standing ties to Russia and its shark-eyed dictator essentially said that he saw the words and assertions of the American intelligence community and Putin as equally valid, and if Putin strongly denied wrong-doing then who was he to press him and potentially ruin their famous bromance? 

As always, Ben Garrison just plain GETS it. 

Because I am a masochistic sort, I looked at the Facebook comments for a Fox News video criticizing the President’s performance at Helsinki and was less than shocked to see it full of comments aggressively praising the President’s performance and harshly criticizing both Fox News and the President’s own party for feeding into Leftist hysteria and inflating what they see as a minor miscue into an impeachable offense. 

This did not surprise me because Trump has given his hard-core supporters not just a prism through which to see any negative reaction to his actions or words as inherently illegitimate and wrong but a series of filters. 

“Trump Derangement Theory” is a phrase cooked up by the Right to describe Leftists so filled with hatred and rage towards Donald Trump that it clouds their judgment and causes them to behave in irrational, violent and hate-filled ways that mirror the President's own rhetoric and behavior. But I think the phrase better applies to the way Trump has conditioned his voters into buying into his words, worldview and beliefs despite them seeming transparently self-serving and transparently wrong to everyone not afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome. 

How DOES he keep winning? Seriously. Not a rhetorical question. 

The American people are in an emotionally abusive relationship with Donald Trump. Abusers make a point of separating the abused from their families and friends, from their support systems, by convincing them that people they think are their allies are actually their enemies working against them for various nefarious reasons. 

Trump has spent the last three years or so brainwashing his followers into seeing any negative press as inherently illegitimate because he has, through dogged repetition, planted the seed in his followers’ fertile minds that the non-right wing media is the enemy of the people, and due to their hatred of the United States and jealousy and envy towards Donald Trump are involved in a far-ranging conspiracy to bring him down through purposefully biased, inaccurate reporting, a field Trump has repeatedly codified as “FAKE NEWS.” The capitalization, needless to say, is Trump’s own, and designed to impress upon the public the severity of the threat posed by these traitorous deniers of Trump’s greatness and flawless victory. 

So when even Fox News reports critically of Trump’s Helsinki performance, Trump Derangement Syndrome makes them see the negative coverage as damning evidence of the press’ strong anti-Trump bias (it’s so bad it even infected the flag-waving likes of Fox News!) rather than proof of Trump’s bungling. 

(left) Me

If Trump seemed to be suggesting, on foreign soil no less, that Putin’s weasel words meant as much to him as the statements of the Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, F.B.I., National Security Agency, Justice Department, House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump Derangement Syndrome insists that of course Trump isn’t going to trust organizations like those, since they’re agents of a Deep State conspiracy to discredit Trump at the behest of their globalist international banker Illuminati masters and also at the very center of an unconscionable “Witch Hunt” that’s the worst affront to any President ever, and way, way worse and unfair than being assassinated. Kennedy was shot to death by anywhere from one to several hundred assassins. That was NOTHING compared to some of the things comedians have said about Donald Trump on Twitter. 

Oh, and those members of Trump’s own party criticizing his Russian bumbling? Trump Derangement Syndrome insists that many of Trump’s loathsome enemies come from his own party, and are more interested in trying to be politically correct and looking good than in helping Trump. So of course establishment Republicans like Paul Ryan would be trying to save face by stridently and hypocritically condemning Trump to cover up their own spinelessness and lack of ethics. 

The sad thing is that not only do I not think the Helsinki debacle will hurt Trump politically, in the short or long term, I actually think it will help him. To Trump’s supporters, the story out of Helsinki is that a famously brash and careless man misspoke, as we all misspeak at various points in our lives, in an anxiety-provoking setting, and then was crucified by a biased left wing press addicted to outrage that can’t wait to turn every minor mistake into a major brouhaha. 

If anything, this UNDERSTATES the actual level of corrupt power working against Trump. 

I suspect that Trump supporters’ anger and irritation at what they see as a virulently anti-Trump’s violent and crazed over-reaction to a minor miscue far outstrips whatever anger they might feel towards Trump for capitulating before an evil world leader on some “Kneel before Zod” type shit. 

Think of it this way: If “Grab em by the pussy” wasn’t a deal breaker for these folks, or the daily assault on decency and democracy that followed it, then why would the Helsinki gaffe change hearts and minds? 

There does not seem to be any cure for Trump Derangement Syndrome but we’ve got to find a way to de-program these people, to break their conditioning and socialization before 2020 or the consequences will be nothing short of disastrous. The downside won't just be yuge: it'll be downright apocalyptic, but that may just be my Trump Derangement Syndrome (the original definition) speaking, because I really do fucking hate the guy and I one hundred percent think that is an acceptable, appropriate response to the man and his actions, whether you're operating on the outer fringes of the FAKE NEWS press, as I am, or not. 

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