Manhattan-based psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert told Fox News on Friday that he has observed what he calls “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) among a significant majority of his patients, noting that around three-quarters show related symptoms.
Speaking on The Faulkner Focus, Alpert said some individuals experience heightened anxiety, fear, or anger related to former President Donald Trump, which results in distress and disruptions to daily life.
“This is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far as to call it the defining pathology of our time,” Alpert said.
The term “TDS” is commonly used by Trump supporters as a dismissive label for critics they view as excessively emotional or irrational.
Alpert described symptoms he believes indicate this condition, including obsessive focus on Trump, sleep difficulties, persistent restlessness, and an inability to disengage from political news.
“One patient said she couldn’t even enjoy a vacation because anytime she saw Trump in the news or on her device, she felt triggered,” he said.
According to Alpert, simply seeing or hearing about Trump can provoke intense emotional responses in these patients. “To be that fixated on a figure, on a person, it’s simply not healthy,” he explained.
In a recent opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, Alpert wrote that the symptoms he has observed resemble those found in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: “persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation and impaired functioning,” accompanied by compulsive news consumption and agitation.
He referred to the condition as “obsessive political preoccupation,” where a political figure becomes the focus of intrusive thoughts and compulsive monitoring.
Initially, Alpert believed the reactions were merely political outrage, but he later concluded that “the symptoms took on a more clinical shape,” distorting perceptions and dominating attention.
Alpert said that within minutes of meeting most new patients, their intense feelings about Trump surface — which he considers evidence of a deeper issue.
Trump has frequently accused both Democrats and media critics of having TDS.
