COMMENTARY: The tragedy of late-stage TDS

They’re for cutting waste and fraud in government — until you cut waste and fraud.

They’re for stopping the war in Ukraine — until you try to stop the war.

They’re for a strong border — until you close the border they left open.

Who are they? The professional Trump Haters, of course.

The people who blindly hate Donald Trump for a living — Democrats and what’s left of the liberal media — have truly lost it. It used to be a joke that “if Trump cured cancer, Democrats would defend cancer.” But that joke has basically come true.

Whether it’s allowing biological men in women’s locker rooms, supporting sex-change surgery for 12-year-olds or outlawing plastic straws, Democrats have staked out a bunch of politically suicidal positions on so-called “80-20” issues that 80 percent of Americans oppose.

Democrats are not just doubling down on the dumb progressive stuff that cost them the White House and the Senate. They’re also taking turns saying really stupid things about Elon Musk and Tesla. Democrats used to be in love with Musk when he was one of them. But then he, his brain and his billions defected to the Trump camp. Worse, he volunteered to help Trump carry out his mission to cut waste, fraud and abuse from the bloated federal government.

When Bill Clinton and Barack Obama touted their plans to do that, as we’ve seen in old video clips on X, it was treated as a worthy and important political goal. But when Trump and Musk are doing the same thing today, admittedly with great glee and at greater speed, it’s being portrayed by Democrats and the Trump haters in liberal media as a crime against innocent bureaucrats.

I didn’t vote for Obama or Joe Biden, but I didn’t hate them. I hated their policies. With Trump haters, it’s the reverse. They hate him so vehemently and irrationally that they automatically hate his policies, too, even if they are similar to what theirs used to be.

Modern Democrats, not the old Jim Crow kind, used to be known for free speech, law and order, strong borders, world peace and minding our own business overseas. But all that flipped years ago when Trump came along. Democrats and the liberal media became deranged. Now they’re in the late stages of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

They are starting to say really stupid stuff that makes them look only more politically out of touch with voters, if that’s still possible.

For example, failed VP candidate Tim Walz told Gavin Newsom that he gets a little “boost” every time he sees Tesla’s stock go down. On CNN, investor Kevin O’Leary called Walz “beyond stupid” for his joke. He said Minnesota currently holds 1.6 million shares of Tesla worth $350 million in its retirement fund. “What’s the matter with that guy?” O’Leary asked. “He doesn’t check the well-being of his own constituents. What a bozo.”

Walz, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and a chorus of other elected Democrats have been using a lot of vulgar language lately in their scripted anti-Trump tirades. But as any good shrink could tell you, shouting and spewing dirty words is just another sad symptom of late-stage TDS.

Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to reagan@caglecartoons.com and follow @reaganworld on X.