Forget Trump Derangement Syndrome: Trump Fatigue is real, and I’ve got it

Not that it matters to President Trump, but a lot of Americans are not fans. They don’t like his public vulgarity, his narcissism, his appetite for vengeance and a lot more. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they have Trump Derangement Syndrome, the catch-all diagnosis his supporters like to apply to anyone who finds him objectionable.

They may have another condition brought on by the president. There’s a good chance they’re suffering from Trump Fatigue.

Every day with this president, something new hits the fan. Trump may need a daily dose of chaos, but the rest of us don’t. Chaos and controversy may be his oxygen. They may be what energize him. But after all these years, they’re what wear a lot of us out.

And there’s rarely time to digest one controversy before the next one comes barreling down the road and smacks us in the mouth.

On the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned virtually everyone convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, while commuting the sentences of several others. His proclamation called the prosecutions a “grave national injustice.”

Since then, in no particular order — because with Donald Trump there really is no particular order — he has made waves saying Canada should become our 51st state.

He threatened to take control of Greenland, refusing at one point to rule out military force.

He never stopped claiming the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Yet at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month, he asked supporters to pledge that they would “ cheat like hell ” because, he said, Democrats routinely cheat in elections.

The man who has spent years telling Americans that cheating undermined an election was now standing before supporters, leading them in a pledge … to cheat.

He banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House because he didn’t like what they were saying about him. His administration subsequently defended the bans in court partly on national-security grounds.

He took control of the Kennedy Center’s board which added his name to the building — above that of John F. Kennedy’s name. A federal judge later ruled that the board had exceeded its authority, and Trump’s name was removed.

He demolished the White House East Wing to make way for his great big beautiful golden new ballroom.

And now he wants to build a 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery — what some have dubbed the “Arc de Trump.” When that project ran into legal and preservation challenges, Trump announced that it would also be a “Military Complex/Triumphal Arch,” complete with drones, snipers and ammunition, which he said were necessary for national security.

You couldn’t make this stuff up. And if you did, nobody would buy the screenplay.

Then there are the dopey names he keeps doling out to Democrats — or “Dumocrats,” as he calls them.

James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, becomes “James Talafreako.”

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “ my little communist .”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is “ Cryin’ Chuck Schumer .”

And Democrats generally are now “communists,” with some elevated — or demoted, depending on your point of view — to “ hardcore, godless communists .”

As Joe Biden might put it: “Come on, man.”

Enough already. And that’s the point about Trump Fatigue. It isn’t the same thing as hating Trump. It isn’t even necessarily about disagreeing with his policies. You can support what he’s doing on the border, or taxes, or regulation, or foreign policy and still wonder why every day has to come with another insult, another provocation, another grandiose idea, another enemy, another controversy.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is supposed to describe people who can’t stop thinking about Trump. Trump Fatigue describes people who would occasionally like the opportunity to stop thinking about him.

But Trump makes that almost impossible. He doesn’t merely occupy the presidency. He occupies the national conversation. Morning, noon and night, there he is — demanding attention, picking a fight, settling a score, bestowing a nickname, announcing something nobody saw coming.

And after nearly a decade of this, maybe the remarkable thing isn’t that some Americans are outraged by Donald Trump. Maybe it’s that a lot of us are just plain tired.

Tired of every day being another episode in the longest-running reality show in American political history. Tired of wondering what he said now. Tired of the outrage from one side and the reflexive defense from the other. Tired of a country that seems unable to talk about much of anything without Trump somehow becoming the subject.

Ten minutes after Trump opens his mouth, some of us need a nap. We’re exhausted. And we know one thing for sure: Tomorrow, there’ll be another episode of the Trump show.

That may be good for ratings. But it’s hell on all of us suffering from Trump Fatigue.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page .