Deranged Trump Syndrome

MAGA disciples talk of Trump Derangement Syndrome to dismiss the former president’s critics—the majority of Americans—as simply unhinged.

What we actually suffer from is Deranged Trump Syndrome—the sense that Donald Trump was and is capable of just about any noxious act.

Few would have more reason to be afflicted than the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, given his many encounters with the cracked commander-in-chief. DTS apparently drove Gen. Mark A. Milley, the four-star Army general who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to contact his Chinese military counterpart Gen. Li Zuocheng twice—once before election day and again two days after the defeated Trump incited his MAGA army to insurrection Jan. 6—to reassure the rival power that the United States had no hostile intentions.

We need more information about Milley’s thinking, and he’s sure to be asked to provide it when he testifies later this month before senators about the flawed withdrawal from Afghanistan. But based on what’s been leaked from a book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post, Milley mostly deserves our commendation.

Set aside for a moment that, as was often said, Trump put the country in uncharted territory given his penchant—even delight—in flouting norms, the Constitution and the rule of law.

For years, under presidents of both parties, national security officials kept lines of communication open to their counterparts in the Soviet Union (now Russia) and China to avert miscalculations that could provoke war. Milley continued that tradition.

As his spokesman has said, Milley’s calls with Chinese and other foreign counterparts “were in keeping with” his responsibility “to maintain strategic stability,” and were coordinated with other officials at the Pentagon.

If Milley indeed had reason to fear what Trump might do to maintain his hold on power—stage a coup, order an attack, even a nuclear strike—then we should celebrate that Milley took action.

The Woodward and Costa book disclosed more information about a previously reported conversation between Milley and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Jan. 8—the same day as his call with Li—in which she fretted about Trump igniting a nuclear attack. When she called Trump “crazy,” the book relates, Milley replied, “I agree with you on everything.”

General, tell us more. For all the books that document just how crazy Trump was as president, it’s time to hear it directly from Milley and others, so that the country knows what better guardrails might be erected against mad rulers.

Not all of Milley’s attackers are Republicans, echoing Trump’s talk of treason. But many are. If those Republicans showed the same outrage toward the former president—the first in history to refuse to abide by the peaceful transfer of power and who is still whipping up his supporters to undermine democracy itself—then they might deserve to be taken seriously now.