The DSM has yet to add Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) to its catalog of mental illness. Perhaps this is because the definition is controversial. Originally, it was believed that TDS described a collection of symptoms related to an exaggerated, almost paranoid, concern about what Donald Trump would do when handed the most powerful job in the world. Members of his MAGA movement, and its performative right-wing enablers in the Opinion Industrial Complex, have delighted in diagnosing their political opponents with the ailment, although few of them are mental health professionals.

But, in an interesting twist, many psychiatrists now believe the syndrome has been poorly understood, until now. A new meta-study, compiling hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, strongly suggests that an entirely different cohort than originally identified may be most at risk. In short, TDS is now believed to affect Trump voters most of all—indeed, almost exclusively.

In the new study’s abstract, Dr. Bernard Francis Snikt, MD, describes the team’s findings.

Contrary to popular assumption, Trump derangement, rather than presenting as comorbid with left-leaning politics, in our research presents as statistically exclusive to those members of the American electorate who cast votes for Donald John Trump. This was initially surprising to our team, and we determined to be very cautious in drawing any inferences; however, as we delved further into the data from the 624 peer-reviewed studies we analyzed, it became difficult to support any other conclusion than that which we have reached.
The term “[name of President] Derangement Syndrome” can be traced to the psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer, who was involved in the creation of the DSM III, and was a member of the Carter administration who later became a conservative commentator. In 2003, he coined the phrase to refer to critics of the George W. Bush presidency (“Bush Derangement Syndrome”). That coinage appears to have been a lighthearted jape, at the expense of worried Democrats who feared that a President of demonstrated incuriosity, dim-wittedness and bellicose rhetoric, might involve the United States in disastrous foreign wars.
After President Bush involved the nation in disastrous foreign wars, the term appears to have been forgotten, to be resurrected more than a decade later in reference to President Trump. According to CNN commentator, Fareed Zakaria, TDS was defined as "hatred of President Trump so intense that it impairs people's judgment.” Our research demonstrates that the exact opposite is closer to the truth.
The “derangement” at the center of TDS turns out to be a result of the cognitive dissonance required for an American voter to elect, and now, reelect, an historically and uniquely unfit person to be President of the United States. Prior to Donald Trump’s first election, partisans would routinely invoke the notion of “lack of fitness” for office; however, if nothing else, the Trump era has proven that our conception of language—quaint notions like the meaning of words and their expressive value—has become inadequate.
Even the term “derangement” may no longer be an adequate description for the mental health status of voters who, against their own stated priorities in many cases, would vote to elect a man lacking most of the stated moral and ethical values of previous candidates, even if those values were mostly aspirational. Beyond personal values, Mr. Trump has demonstrated little interest in or aptitude for the basic rules of governance, scant awareness of the Constitution, and vast ignorance concerning history, law, international affairs, science, mathematics, literature, human rights, balance of power and basic human decency.
And that was all before his first term.
We can now also add to the list the fact that he is a convicted felon, an evident conman, an accused child rapist, a twice-impeached insurrectionist, and a self-dealing fraud. He is also an inveterate liar, a cheating husband, and a racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic petty tyrant.
What but “derangement” could possibly characterize the mindset of a voter who would send this person back to the White House? As our analysis will show, there are no words.

It is unclear whether the DSM VI, which is currently under development, will include these latest findings about TDS. It is sure to be controversial. Ironically, it may depend on how many members of the American Psychiatric Association suffer from the syndrome.