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Topics: Donald Trump, Mental Health, Republicans, Minnesota, News, US News, Politics
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Donald Trump, Mental Health, Republicans, Minnesota, News, US News, Politics
A handful of Republicans are wanting 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' to be classified as a mental illness.
The faux 'syndrome' is in regards to those who have an extreme critical reaction to Donald Trump and his supporters.
The term has long been used by the POTUS and his voters to hit back at his naysayers, but it is not recognized as a mental illness anywhere - but soon it will, if some Republicans get their way.
'Derangement syndrome' was first used back in the early 2000s by Charles Krauthammer in a political sense. He used the phrase when referring to critics of then-President George W. Bush.
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The bill describes the supposed illness as 'the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of (Trump)'.
"Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump's behavior," the proposal further reads, as per Fox News.
The idea of making the syndrome an officially recognized mental illness has been put forward by Republicans Eric Lucero, Steve Drazkowski, Nathan Wesenberg, Justin D. Eichorn and Glenn H. Gruenhagen.
Titled Bill SF 2589, the newly suggested legislation was scheduled for a first reading with the Health and Human Services Committee Monday (March 17).
Speaking about the bill, Gruenhagen said he's 'proud' to be behind it.
He penned on Facebook over the weekend: "I am proud to be one of the co-authors on this bill which calls attention to the oftentimes outrageous, violent and unreasonable reactions we’ve seen towards a President who loves America and wants us to be prosperous, strong, safe, and great again."
Elsewhere, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) has condemned it.
Spokesperson Darwin Forsyth said in statement: "This is why Minnesota Republicans have lost every statewide election in recent memory – every time they get an opportunity to try to improve Minnesotans’ lives, they instead double down on an agenda that caters to their party’s most extreme right-wing activists."
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy has also publicly criticized the bill.
"This is possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history," Murphy said.
"If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues. If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president."