Yes, I admit it, I have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The exact symptoms are controversial, but according to Wikipedia, a person with TDS has an irrational, intense, or obsessive reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Few people who know me or even who just read my facebook posts would dispute that I’ve had TDS for at least 2 ½ years now, some would say I’ve had it since well before the 2016 election, making me a long-TDS victim.
I want to explain to those who do not have TDS just what it’s like, and just how demoralising it feels to wake up every day with TDS, because I don’t think people understand.
But first I’d like to explain what TDS is not. I do not think Donald Trump is the most evil man ever. I do not deny that he even has many positive and even admirable qualities. He is an amazing and original communicator. He has immense personal charm. Until recently he had a good sense of humour and didn’t take himself too seriously. If he had chosen to be on the side of good rather than evil, he could have gone down in history as a hero.
More to the point, in a world where the most desirable and powerful job is to be US president, nobody can seriously look at someone who has achieved that not once, but twice, despite lacking all the traditional network and political background, without being impressed. All that and I also share his passion for golf.
My TDS unfortunately goes deeper than that, and no amount of backslapping with Rory or Shane will fix it.
In retrospect, I suppose I was always a likely victim.
My personal tragedy is that I am, and always have been, a naïve idealist.
And I was looking at the massive progress humanity was making, and starting to get carried away. For 100,000 years, humans had lived in societies where might is right, where the victors get the spoils and the losers suffer what they must. Even the great societies of Rome or Greece, even the great Chinese dynasties, were far from great if they were judged on how barbarically they treated outsiders.
Then, over the past 500 years or so, for all it’s flaws, humans had started a wonderful project in which we’ve been moving away from this horrible model to one in which everyone is respected, in which we care about suffering even when it’s not our own. We still had a long way to go, but already this had led us to a world in which poverty was being dramatically reduced, in which many more people had the time and resources to live and appreciate life, rather than just suffer and struggle to survive.
I was starting to believe that, despite the obstacles, despite the set-backs and the wars and the cynics and the climate-deniers and so on, we were on a path to creating a world in which everyone would have a chance to lead a healthy, happy life – a life without hunger, without weapons of war, without children dying from treatable diseases …
And today that dream is effectively dead.
And the one person who has done the most to kill my dream, our dream, of this wonderful future, is Donald Trump.
You may argue: but look at Putin. Look at Netanyahu. Look at Kim Jong-Un. Look at al-Burhan and Hemedti (the leaders of the South Sudan factions). These people are far more evil than Donald Trump. They have done more harm, they have directly killed more people. They seem to delight in the suffering of their victims.
I would agree. These people are, as individuals, far worse than Donald Trump. Their blood-thirsty violence and utter cynical indifference to human suffering rightly disgust us.
But there is one critical difference. Each of these individuals has taken over a country that was already deeply flawed and made it worse. Donald Trump has taken over the one country that has been a beacon of hope and freedom and justice for centuries, and destroyed that hope.
As a European, I wish I could believe that the EU and the “Middle-Powers” can create hope without US support, but it is proving extremely difficult.
And right now Trump is not just removing hope, he is actively suppressing any efforts by anyone else to create hope, from supporting neo-nazis in Europe to sanctioning the ICC.
Here’s exactly what went wrong:
The key to the progress that humanity was making lay in empathy and generosity, those most wonderful of human qualities. It was individuals realising that others were suffering and wanting to help them, not because they had to, but because they they wanted to. It was rich countries helping poor countries. It was powerful countries protecting rather than invading weak countries. It was animal rights activists trying to reduce the suffering of animals. It was all about people caring empathically and acting generously.
And the USA had been at the centre of this great project since 1776.
It is impossible to imagine how much worse most of our lives would be now were it not for the incredible project that is the USA. From the immediate inspiration of the French Revolution little more than a decade later, to literally saving the world in WW1 and WW2, the US played noble roles, essentially saving civilisation, even when they were not necessarily under direct threat themselves.
During the Cold War, the US were the good guys. Yes, the CIA did some awful things, yes Vietnam and Korea were horrific. But if you take a step back and ask why the US was there in the first place, it was to do what they felt was right, to protect us all from communism. I’m not naïve about this bit. I know that there are whole peoples whose lives have been made far worse by the US. But they were the one side who was at least nominally trying to do what was right.
When I look at the incredible progress that we’ve made economically, intellectually, in medicine, in science, in technology, in so many things that have made our lives much better, so much of it has come from the US.
And when I look at the liberty that so many of us enjoy, the freedom of thought and action and speech, so much of that has been at least in part inspired by the US.
Donald Trump frequently claims that those who oppose him hate the US. He has this exactly wrong, both in fact and in causality. Those who love the US necessarily oppose Donald Trump.
There is no way to love the US and what it stands for, and continue to support Donald Trump. He and his administration are a cancer that is destroying the US from the inside, and that cancer needs to be surgically removed as soon as possible if the patient is to have any hope of surviving.
This post, ironically, is not inspired by the mid-terms, but rather by the Brewers' World Series win, a reminder of what is great about America.
This week, as the Milwaukee Brewers finally won the world series, had me reminiscing about the wonderful time I had in Wisconsin during my PhD, the great, friendly, generous, idealistic, courageous people I met there, the incredibly supportive culture, the appreciation of the great things in life – sports, music, scientific innovation, intellectual pursuit, humanistic pursuits.
The victory was in part a celebration of one of the most amazing and generous Americans ever, the great Bob Uecker – probably unknown to most non-Americans, but a legend in the US and especially in Wisconsin. He was, primarily, a mediocre baseball player who became a baseball radio announcer for the Brewers – when I was there I used to listen to his broadcasts most days in the lab or wherever. (for Irish people, he was the nearest thing to an American Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh).
Listening to Bob, his self-deprecating humour, his incessantly insightful and generous insights – he never said a bad word about anyone – it was impossible not to feel that there was something right about the world. And the culture he shared, the “baseball-culture”, a culture of ordinary people playing hard and getting stuck-in and supporting and respecting each other, is what I saw in most of the Americans I met.
(The whole “bling” culture of superstar NBA players and ego-driven NFL players and Hollywood stars is, even within the US, seen as another world, a spectator sport. But baseball is closer to the lived experience. Baseball is full of unwritten rules about respecting opponents, which are not imposed by referees but by players themselves, even on their own teammates. American mostly live their day-to-day lives by these rules, even if they don't realise it).
Most people who have never lived in the US do not realise just how deeply humanism and generosity are baked into American culture. For example, how many millions of Americans take a year off during college and instead of “having fun”, will go and work on a charitable project in a developing country. Or how many Americans take a couple of years off work to join the Peace Corps. Or just how many Americans get actively engaged in politics or activism or science or charity or whatever kinds of activity they think will make the world better.
And this is not something that is liberal or conservative. People are just generous - with their time, with their money, with their expertise. I cannot count the number of times Americans went out of their way to help me in ways that went far beyond just politeness - if you've lived there, you'll know that's how Americans are. Unfortunately it doesn't make for good TV drama or politics, so we see a world that does not represent this. And if we see it enough, we start to believe it.
There is also an in-your-face aspect to this which is refreshing and courageous. In Europe, we often disapprove of something but do nothing. In the US, the expectation is much stronger that you should actually intervene. I remember being in a park in Madison playing football when a guy stopped the game and went over to stop someone - a total stranger - who was hitting his dog. That memory stuck with me, because it told me so much about the American belief in doing what's right, and their courage to act on that belief. Many non Americans might have witnesses that and thought it wrong, but how many would have publicly gone and done something about it?
Donald Trump and his administration want to put an end to this culture of empathy, which they view as "weak." They want to end the US role in this whole wonderful project of creating a better world for everyone.
This is not just tragic but also just plain wrong.
Because it’s not only the wrong thing to do from an ethical point of view, it is also totally wrong even from a purely selfish point of view. Trump and his team cannot seem to differentiate between “generous” and “weak”. They do not understand the concept of being a benevolent hegemon. They see the world as a zero-sum game, despite the fact that the greatness of the US – including the way it has become the richest country in the world, derives precisely from the fact that the world is not zero-sum, that there are so many ways in which the US, by helping other countries, also helped itself.
When you look at Canada, the EU, Mexico, your traditional allies, as enemies, you show an incomprehensible level of ignorance about how the world works. Yes, it is absolutely true that we would be worse off without the US – but it is even more true that the US would be far worse off without us. That’s how allegiances work. That’s how friendships work.
Trump is trying to remove all that collaboration and mutual support from the world. He doesn’t understand it, he doesn’t respect it.
If he succeeds, we will go to the world predicted in 1984 or in Brave New World. Even when Stalin was at his worst, most of the world was not being purged.
Trump wants to bring us ALL down to his level. When decent people in other countries object, he attacks them. He supports nazi and neo-nazi parties wherever they exist. He supports Putin and Kim Jong-Il. He respect them as “strong leaders” because in his mind, they do what strong leaders do – they threaten, they use their power against weak individuals and countries, they show no mercy or empathy.
This week a read an article about the horrific injuries that Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are getting on the battle field, so terrible that many of them either die of infections or have to have limbs amputated. I really do not see causing healthy young people to have limbs amputated as being great leadership, but apparently the US administration does.
Trump does not see why renaming the Department of Defence as the Department of War is a bad idea. His secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, frequently says the quiet part out loud, proclaiming a vision of a world where might makes right, where the powerful do as they will and the weak suffer as they must, while his boss talks about invading countries like Greenland just to steal their resources. This from the country which until recently described itself as the defender of democracy and freedom.
But it’s not just physical violence.
It’s also his attacks on science, on education, on health-care. Taking the very things that have enabled the US to become a world-leader and opposing them because they the encourage people to think clearly and to see through his lies. This may end up causing even great harm than his international politics, setting back progress on so many areas, destroying careers, destroying research institutions.
Of course, those of us outside the US may benefit from the fact that the best scientists and researchers want to work in our countries now instead of in the US, but the world as a whole is worse off. We don't want to be better than America - we want to live in a world where we and America are on the same side, the side that stands for good and right and free and fair - and we want America to be great in that role.
And then there are his attacks on the climate. He goes beyond just cynically supporting the fossil fuel industry and denying climate change. He actively blocks clean-energy projects which might reduce the need for fossil fuels - he literally gives vast quantities of US tax-payer money to clean-energy companies to force them not to complete projects they have started. There is no possible way that is good for the US. He actively stops any scientific project which might (accurately) report the damage that his policies are doing to the climate or to the environment.
And then, on AI, perhaps the most important topic of our generation, he is leading us in exactly the wrong direction. The question is complex, I do not claim that there is one, simple right answer. However, we can say with total confidence that Donald Trump’s answer is utterly wrong.
We can argue about the risks and harms and the benefits of AI and discuss where we should draw the line, or how to get the most benefit with the least harm. But two policies that doenot make sense, which limit our chance of AI working out well, are to focus, as he does, exclusively on the impact on the stock-market, oand to adopt his zero-sum mentality to the AI-arms-race with China, when the whole world needs the US and China to collaborate.
He (alone) is the obstacle to collaboration. We need to call that out. China has expressed a willingness to collaborate. The AI Companies want to collaborate on pacing AI. Donald Trump refuses to countenance it.
So, yes, I do probably spend far too much mental energy obsessing about Trump and his administration, and how they are destroying what looked like such a wonderful project to create a better world for all of us, and instead actively making it worse for everyone except perhaps a few billionaires who fund his campaign.
Donald Trump, more than any person who has lived this century, has destroyed our hope in a better future. That is why I have TDS.
But there is some hope ...
Just this past week, brave citizens in Serbia, Brazil and Israel have shown that hope may not be totally lost. Protesters around the world are beginning to fight back against the unequal society we’re creating.
Meanwhile, quietly, out of the news, billions of “ordinary people” continue to dedicate their lives to helping others – working in charities, helping their elderly or sick neighbours or family members, teaching, nursing, supporting, feeding. Because people are fundamentally good. Humanity is not dead, despite what we might judge looking at the world leaders in the news.
I really try hard not to give up hope. I desperately hope that the US voters, both liberal and conservative, will send a clear message this week that they repudiate Donald Trump’s selfish message, that they do not agree that the US should become as selfish pariah, that they are proud of the US’s role as a leader of freedom and justice, and they want that to continue, that they reject a world in which money is all that matters.
In less than a week, I hope we will see the US show the world its wonderful true colours, and take the first step towards consigning this vile administration to the rubbish bin of history.
PS It’s interesting that Dante would probably put Putin, Netanyahu and the others in the 7th level of hell, with the violent criminals, where they would rightly boil in rivers of blood. But Trump would go in the lowest levels, the 8th or the 9th (his sins are so numerous they require more than one level) with the frauds, the treacherous, the betrayers, the corrupt politicians. Because Dante understood that there are forms of evil that go beyond even the worst violence, and these are the evils that destroy our ability to trust each other, destroy our common humanity, destroy our hope.
PPS Many people will misinterpret this as an attack on those who elected Trump. It is not that. I believe and have frequently written, that there has been a very effective and expensive PR campaign by some right-wing groups, aided and abetted by some utterly clueless PR blunders by the Democrats, which have caused many millions of Americans to truly believe that voting for Trump was the right thing to do. However, by now, it is difficult to credibly claim to believe that. Even true conservatives need to focus on removing this stain from their party and then rebuilding around a genuine, positive, human vision of conservatism.
PPPS As a non-American, I don't think it's for me to talk about President Trump's character or personal behaviour. It's not like our own politicians are saints either. I'm only interested in the impact his administration is having on the world.
PPPPS I post this knowing that it will get down votes and that I will lose some, perhaps many, of my hard-earned karma points to EA's who want to stick their heads in the sand, who believe that stopping this current US administration is not the single most impactful thing we could do to advance the goals of the EA movement.
I wish I shared your optimism regarding the motives underpinning the changes you’ve described, but unfortunately, I attribute them almost entirely to neutral self-interest.
‘the US played noble roles, essentially saving civilisation, even when they were not necessarily under direct threat themselves.’
Their blemin’ ships were under threat. I don’t know if they would’ve gotten involved otherwise.
‘Many non Americans might have witnessed that and thought it wrong, but how many would have publicly gone and done something about it?’
Well I would’ve, and I’m European like you, so there. :)
I think what I’m objecting to is your romanticisation of motives. Singular acts of generosity deserve credit for what they are. But zooming out, if Americans are exceptionally generous, more so than others as your post seems to imply… why does their society tolerate levels of material insecurity that many European societies have chosen to mitigate collectively?
And their foreign policy has contributed to suffering on a scale that makes the romanticisation hard to agree with.
If one nevertheless believes America was uniquely committed to advancing humanity’s moral progress, its current direction must feel like the collapse of humanity’s moral spine. If, on the other hand, you recognise that American history has always involved competing traditions of virtue, self-interest, domination and cooperation, Trump’s success is still alarming, but less inexplicable.
So, I’m immune from TDS, because I wasn’t enamoured to begin with. If I had my way, Europe would swiftly unify to better contain the wonkiness either side of us, the UK would rejoin the EU tomorrow and we’d all be home in time for tea and crumpets.
With that said, I really enjoyed your post, agree that Trump’s presidency is not conducive to moral progress, and would like to see more of these kinds of narrative thought pieces on the Forum.