Trump Derangement Syndrome and Trump Defense Reflex

President Donald Trump.
(Photo by Gage Skidmore) (CC BY-SA) (Resized/Cropped)
To the disappointment of many of my friends I was and am a Trump skeptic and a Trump critic. I have a low opinion of the man and his level of fitness for the office he holds. But he is President. So I wish him well and I pray for him. Nothing would please (or surprise) me more than to be forced in a few years to say “I was wrong about Donald Trump.” When he was inaugurated, I said that the right thing to do is to support him when we can and oppose him when we must. And that’s… what I have done and will continue to do. I praised the Gorsuch nomination and criticized the travel EO and the phony religious liberty EO. But I’m concerned about the reactions to Trump on both sides. Trump Derangement Syndrome—rampant in the pond in which I swim—does not help. But Trump Apologism does not help either. Take the latter. Even supporters of the President cannot be ignorant of his most glaring faults. Among these is impetuousness—which prompts him to shoot (or tweet) from the hip. That’s what he did in the case of the London mayor. Either he misunderstood Sadiq Khan’s words or he distorted them in order to blast the guy and depict him as soft on Islamist terrorism. To me, this is obvious. Just read what the mayor said and read what President Trump said in his tweet about him. And yet, I find people trying to justify what the president said. It’s like an impulse, a reflex to defend the president against his critics, no matter what he says or does. It’s the mirror image of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Indeed, we could label it Trump Derangement Syndrome. Not good.
Well, now I suppose I’ve made everyone mad.
Robert George is Chairman at United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, McCormick Professor of Juriprudence at Princeton University, Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and author of Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism.
Trending Now on Affluent Christian Investor
Sorry. No data so far.
The Affluent Mix
Biden Oblivious To Illegal Immigration Issues... August 2, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Rob Arnott On Bubbles, Inflation, And Once-In-A-Generation Investment Opportunit... August 2, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

The Federal Reserve’s Massive Theft Of Stability... August 2, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

What To Do About This Difficult Market? August 2, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Letter On The Politicization Of Corporations... July 26, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Peak Of The Fake Bull Market July 26, 2021 | Michael Pento

Woodrow Wilson’s Administrative State vs. Gold... July 26, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

Dividends, Energy, And Crypto July 26, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Whose Side Are You On? July 26, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Media, Left Ignore These Dangers July 19, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Mark Skousen On FreedomFest And How To Measure The Whole Economy... July 19, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Quantifying The Quantitative, Or Making Easy The Easing... July 19, 2021 | David Bahnsen

The Gold Standard Means A Rising Standard Of Living... July 19, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

Book Review: Brian Domitrovic Reveals The Monetary Genius Of Arthur Laffer... July 19, 2021 | John Tamny

Steve Forbes: Time To Worry About Inflation, Not Hyperinflation... July 12, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

UFOs Rescue Biden July 12, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

Read This Classical Economist’s 200 Year Old Warning About Paper Money... July 12, 2021 | Jim Huntzinger

How Central Banks Murdered The Markets July 12, 2021 | Michael Pento

Everything There Is To Know About The Stock Market... July 12, 2021 | David Bahnsen

AT&T CEO: We’re Ill Equipped For Politics, And We’re Spending A Lot Of ... July 6, 2021 | Jerry Bowyer

Internet Bias Distorts National Conversation... July 6, 2021 | Frank Vernuccio

The Halfway Point Of 2021 July 6, 2021 | David Bahnsen

Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.