A Manhattan psychotherapist is confirming what conservatives have warned about for years: Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, it’s spreading, and it’s shredding the mental health of millions of Americans who can’t emotionally cope with the existence of Donald Trump.
During an interview on “The Faulkner Focus,” Jonathan Alpert, a well-known psychotherapist who practices in New York and Washington and writes for the Wall Street Journal, revealed that three-quarters of his patients are now suffering from what can only be described as a political obsession so unhinged it borders on clinical impairment.
Alpert explained that within five minutes of a session, many patients launch into rants about Trump. Not policy issues. Not debate. Pure emotional meltdown.
Harris Faulkner:
Jonathan is in focus with me now. So, first of all, identify it for us. You’re in a session, and you pick up on what?Jonathan Alpert:
Well, Harris, it doesn’t take long for me to pick up on this. People are obsessed with Trump. They’re fixated — they’re hyper-fixated on Trump. And they talk about some of the features of this disorder: they can’t sleep, they feel traumatized by Mr. Trump, they feel restless. I had one patient who said she couldn’t enjoy a vacation because any time she saw Trump in the news or on her device, she felt triggered. So this is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far as to call it the defining pathology of our time.Harris Faulkner:
These people come to you for the things that you described — can’t sleep, traumatized, perhaps depression. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but at first you are there to treat an illness, a disorder of some kind, and what you figure out is that’s the trigger.Jonathan Alpert:
Well, and Trump is the trigger for many of these people. To be that fixated on a figure — on a person — it’s simply not healthy. Our country has strayed so far away from where we once were. If you look at the ’80s, when President Reagan was shot, people were united. He famously said to the surgeons, “I hope you’re all Republicans.” The response was, “Today, Mr. President, we’re all Republicans.” But our country has lost that. We’ve strayed so far from that unity.Harris Faulkner:
What do you see? Because you told me off camera that three-quarters of your patient load right now has what you’re calling this TDS.Jonathan Alpert:
Well, three-quarters of my patients will present with a lot of these symptoms, and within probably five minutes of seeing me, their hatred for Trump comes up. So if you’re that hyper-focused on Trump, that’s an issue — and it’s worth being treated.
WATCH:
HOLY CRAP! Psychotherapists are now seeing the effects of Trump DERANGEMENT Syndrome in their patients
“I had one patient who couldn’t enjoy vacation because she saw Trump on her device or news, and felt triggered.”
Omg…
“Some of the features of this ‘disorder’: They… pic.twitter.com/hX2GWZhajq
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 14, 2025
In his hard-hitting op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Alpert rebranded the phenomenon as “obsessive political preoccupation.”
He described it as an OCD-like disorder where Trump becomes the boogeyman for every insecurity and fear.
He describes patients who:
- suffer persistent intrusive thoughts about Trump
- compulsively monitor news about him
- endure chronic hyperarousal and vigilance
- lose the ability to function normally in daily life
He wrote:
“Is “Trump derangement syndrome” real? No serious mental-health professional would render such a partisan and derogatory diagnosis. Yet I’ve seen it in my own psychotherapy practice. Patients across the political spectrum have brought Donald Trump into therapy not to discuss policy but to process obsession, rage and dread. Their distress is symptomatic, not ideological.
Clinically, the presentation aligns with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation and impaired functioning. Patients describe sleepless nights, compulsive news checking and physical agitation. Many confess they can’t stop thinking about Donald Trump even when they try. They interpret his every move as a threat to democracy and to their own safety and control.
Call it “obsessive political preoccupation”—an obsessive-compulsive spectrum presentation in which a political figure becomes the focal point for intrusive thoughts, heightened arousal and compulsive monitoring.
I initially viewed this as an ideological reaction, an understandable response to a polarizing figure. But over time the symptoms took on a more clinical shape. What once looked like outrage now presents as a fixation that distorts perception and consumes attention.One patient told me she couldn’t enjoy a family vacation because “it felt wrong to relax while Trump was still out there.” Others report panic attacks or trouble sleeping after seeing him in the news. Their anxiety has outgrown politics and become a way of being.
At the group level, the pattern functions like a culture-bound syndrome, a condition shaped by shared social triggers within a specific context. From a diagnostic standpoint, it overlaps with obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and trauma-related syndromes. While not a formal diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it reflects the same symptom patterns and behavioral mechanisms used to define emerging conditions. By that measure, this presentation merits serious consideration.”
On Newsmax’s “The National Desk,” The Daily Signal’s senior editor Tyler O’Neil joined host Kelly Sadler to dissect Alpert’s op-ed, calling TDS a “neurotic” obsession that’s poisoning politics.
He notes that Trump has been hysterically compared to Hitler for years, creating a climate where people genuinely believe the country is on the precipice of dictatorship.
Even worse, O’Neil said, Democrats have turned this neurosis into a political strategy:
- shutdowns for the sake of “fighting Trump”
- legislation drafted to stop Trump, not help Americans
- party platforms built around pure opposition
In poll after poll, Democrats say their top priority isn’t the economy, schools, or the border, it’s simply “fight Trump.”
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The post Psychotherapist Confirms TDS is REAL and Exploding — Patients Can’t Sleep, Travel, or Function Normally Because They’re “Triggered” by Trump appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.