By Selwyn Duke
It’s a fascinating phenomenon, people hating a man so thoroughly, so intensely, so irrationally. The wrath showered upon the 45th president is so anomalous and extreme, in fact, that it even has a name: Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). And it’s so befuddling that one of our time’s greatest psychologists has now weighed in on it.
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson delved into the etiology of TDS and said that the “degree of animosity some people have for Trump is actually somewhat of a mystery to me. I can’t quite crack it.”
Peterson then went on to outline a somewhat common theory. “There’s a class thing there, I would say,” he stated. “… Elitist people are annoyed that [the person] they think Trump is has dared to enter the upper echelons.”
Peterson then touched on Trump’s business persona, saying that the ex-president “straddles the line between salesman and huckster” (Peterson emphasized that he didn’t mean this in a pejorative sense), and this “irritates, especially, anti-capitalist, elitist leftist types.”
At this point, the psychologist said there was more to it, but that it’s very “mysterious.” The pseudo-elites believe he’s “contaminating their domain — it’s something like that.”
Peterson makes some good points, as always. Yet he only addresses the pseudo-elite contempt for Trump. What of the hatred felt by millions of rank-and-file leftists? Is it just that their emotions are being catalyzed by pseudo-elite propaganda? To an extent, yes. Yet there’s more to it.
Peterson used the term “déclassé” — which can mean “fallen in social status” — to describe Trump. This is accurate. To understand TDS, realize that its onset coincided perfectly with the moment Trump threw his hat into the political ring and became a serious presidential contender. Prior to then some of the afflicted had a different TDS: Trump Donation Syndrome.
Trump had for many years funded Democrats (along with Republicans), who in turn often fêted him. This included donating to Hillary Clinton and her foundation; Hilly was so beholden, too, that she attended Trump and Melania’s 2005 wedding, with hubby, Bill, showing up for the reception. What changed?
When Trump was donating to these pseudo-elites, he was enabling their power.
When he began running against them, he was threatening their power.
He entered their arena and, as Peterson said, this was intolerable — and politics makes strange dead-fellows. (“Contaminating” their realm makes Trump “dead” to the pseudo-elites.) Yet there’s another factor.
No one will hate you more, or try to destroy you more vigorously, than a person insanely jealous of you. Now, Trump was always the wealthy, flashy playboy who landed the beautiful women, lived the life of Riley, and got media attention. But then he entered politics.
And he beat the power-seekers even at their own game.
Now, if you crave money more than anything else, you may be become intensely jealous of someone’s far greater talent for making money. And if you crave power more than anything else — as so many politicians do — how will you react to someone having far greater talent for attaining power?
Think back to when Jeb Bush ran for the presidency in 2016. He’d been the 43rd governor of one of our most populous states (Florida) and, following two Bushes as president, was the GOP heir apparent. He was the front-runner for a time, too.
Then came Trump.
Trump, quick with a quip and comfortable before a camera, humiliated Bush, making him, by virtue of contrast, appear a weak beta male. In fact, Trump bested what was a very impressive 2016 GOP field and then did the unprecedented:
He became the first man to win the presidency without ever having held office or being in the military — and while spending relatively little money — beating the Democratic heir apparent, Clinton, in the process.
So he wasn’t content to just be outrageously rich, famous, flashy, and fêted. He had to then take away the pseudo-elites’ favorite toys. The envy must burn with the fires of a thousand raging suns.
But what of rank-and-file TDS? Jealously is an issue there, too, with research showing that leftists are actually more materialistic and money-oriented than are conservatives. Yet other vices are factors as well.
G.K. Chesterton once noted, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
Leftists are the antithesis of the “true soldier.” Hate epitomizes them.
Consider here that they’re notoriously emotional (a function of not believing in Truth; it leaves you, mainly, with feelings as arbiters of reality). Their intellects, largely disengaged, generally don’t intervene to try to tame the wrath. Even more significantly, they lack virtue — “good moral habits” — and are instinctively inclined toward anger.
The result is that they hate — a lot. They hated presidents Ronald Reagan and G.W. Bush, calling the former “Ronald Ray-gun” and sometimes portraying the latter as a monkey. The difference is that those men tried to be gentlemanly and perhaps even genteel.
In contrast, Trump is brash. It’s ironic, too, that he has been involved in professional wrestling, because a WWE analogy is instructive here.
A “heel” is a bad guy in wrestling. He’d typically be an entertaining, unforgettable character, who was great in front of a camera and could get millions of people to despise him. For the Left, Trump is this character in real life.
Trump is distinctive, having branded himself, with his business suits, patent hairstyle, and orange-y appearance. A heel to leftists (because he threatens their side’s victory), he’s nothing like Reagan or Bush. He’s the guy who jumps up on the ropes, flexes his muscles, and taunts the crowd.
And the crowd goes wild.
His critics mock him, and he mocks them right back; they try to open a wound, and he tosses salt in theirs. It’s a positive feedback loop, with leftists throwing fuel on the fire of Trump’s passion, and with him then dousing their raging, wrathful inferno with his own accelerant.
Put simply, the same red meat Trump so generously throws to his base, and which excites it, chums the water for the mindless, swarming sharks.
There may be yet be more to TDS, too, of course. You can add your thoughts in the comments section below.
Addendum: What follows is a video from Trump’s WWE days.
This article was originally published at The New American.
I honestly don't understand why liberals and never Trumpers hate such a warm, generous and oh-so-kind man as Donald Trump. And let's not forget his chivalry, absolutely scads of chivalry. BTW, how's the Bronx lately?
Posted by: tj | June 11, 2024 at 12:02 AM
And now that he's the president they hate him even more. Just because. It's truly insane.
Posted by: Mystie | April 13, 2025 at 02:46 AM