What is 'Trump derangement syndrome' that Elon Musk claims his friends suffer from?

Elon Musk recently mentioned "Trump Derangement Syndrome" in a joint Fox News interview with US president Donald Trump - and gave an expressive example of what this supposedly looks like.

The billionaire has been a close advisor of Trump's since he was elected into office, with their aim to radically reduce the size of government with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

(But the White House has said Musk is not an employee of DOGE, and has no decision-making authority but rather is a White House employee and senior adviser to the president, Reuters reported).

The two figures had a sit-down chat with Fox News's Sean Hannity who questioned Musk's thoughts on being criticised by the left.

“Now you’re going to rescue astronauts and now and again, you do all of this. I would think liberals would love the fact that you have the biggest electric vehicle company in the world," Hannity said to Musk.

“Yeah. I mean, I used to be adored by the left, you know?” Musk replied and then explained how his friends reacted to him mentioning Trump in conversation.

“This whole sort of like, you know, they call it like ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ and, you know, you don’t realize how real this is until, like, it’s you can’t reason with people.”

“I was at a friend’s birthday party in L.A., just a birthday dinner, and it was like a nice quiet dinner. Everything was — everyone’s behaving normally,” Musk recalled. “And then I have to mention — this is before the election, like a month or two before — I have to mention the president’s name, and it was like they got shot with a dart in the jugular that contained, like, the methamphetamine and rabies!”

He then made some zombie-like gestures to demonstrate his point.

“Okay. And like, wow, I haven’t like, what is it guys like?” Musk said. “You can have like a normal conversation. And it’s like it’s it’s like that become completely irrational.”

But what is "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and where did it come from?

While "Trump Derangement Syndrome" clearly is associated with Donald Trump, the term can be traced back to another president - President George W. Bush and "Bush Derangement Syndrome”

This was created in 2003 by late conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, CNN reported.

For "Bush Derangement Syndrome," Krauthammer defined this as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency – nay – the very existence of George W. Bush."

Before "Trump Derangement Syndrome" there was "Bush Derangement Syndrome”Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

After Bush, came President Barack Obama and "Obama Derangement Syndrome," which Vox’s Ezra Klein noted in 2015 how focussed less on Obama's policies but rather there was "paranoia about the man himself — that he is, in some fundamental way, different, foreign, untrustworthy, even traitorous," with conspiracy theories surrounding his citizenship (which just so happened to be peddled by Trump).

But what does the Urban Dictionary define "Trump Derangement Syndrome" as?

“Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a mental condition in which a person has been driven effectively insane due to their dislike of Donald Trump, to the point at which they will abandon all logic and reason".

Elsewhere, Donald Trump's birthday could become a public holiday, and Elon Musk posted two completely contradictory messages about free speech just hours apart.

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