Trump Obsession Disorder
This article was originally featured on Cennétig’s Substack and is re-produced with the permission of the author.
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One of my colleagues walks into the room and I hear them go off about something Trump said the last day. Their facial expression is a mix between contempt and bewilderment. “How could he say such a thing?? What a buffoon.” I notice this isn’t the first time my colleague has made remarks like this. I think to myself, why does this person care about Trump so much? He may be a bollocks, but he is a leader of a foreign country with no jurisdiction over Ireland. It shouldn’t affect you this much.
Unfortunately this person has a disorder: Trump Obsession Disorder (TOD).
On his podcast, David McSavage makes the point about how US late-night talk show hosts are obsessed with Trump to the extent that their pretentious contempt of Trump makes you identify with Trump more so than you normally would. The more you listen to these hosts, the more you feel yourself identifying with Trump. Their natural repulsiveness achieves the opposite of their intended aim.
Trump Obsession Disorder is a common psychological disorder of the East Yank. The East Yank is the brother of the West Brit in the FitzSeoinín family. The East Yank is in awe of Yankee cultural values and politics. If they are of the older generations, they watch CNN on the telly in the evening. If they are of the younger generations, they consume US culture through Netflix or YouTube. They are enamored with US politics, they like the decadence of it; they find it entertaining. They find Irish politics boring in comparison, because slander and comedy isn’t intertwined with politics over here.
Depending on their disposition, they identify with one side of the US political spectrum. If they identify with the Democratic Party side, they begin to believe all the exaggerated lies about Trump. If they identify with the Republican Party side, they fall into Trump sycophancy.
Understanding Trump isn’t that complicated. He is just a product of the ‘Fuck you, it’s New York City’ culture of New York. He’s an arrogant billionaire that was elected to piss off the pretentious Stephen Colbert’s of the world.
What should be noted too, Trump Obsession Disorder is not just a mental disorder that can be contracted by those that hate Trump—although this is the majority of cases—it can also be contracted by those that love him. The crowd that wears the ‘Make Ireland Great Again’ cap and wish for an Irish Trump in Irish politics also seem to have symptoms of this disorder. The irony is that these people call themselves nationalists but are entirely consumed by foreign politics and foreign ideas. They are equivalent to a West Brit of Gaelic stock in the 1910s calling themselves nationalists because they support the British Empire and colonialism.
The impetus that gave me the urge to write this article, is the ruining of a once great podcast as one of the hosts seems to have contracted TOD. The Free State podcast, hosted by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning has become unlistenable in recent weeks as the discussion seems to obsessively revolve around Trump.
On the 28th of August, and on the 9th and 11th of September, they talked about Trump so much to the extent they had his name in the title. On their recent episode on the 16th of September, the episode was about Charlie Kirk, but Trump was mentioned 18 times. The 4th of September episode was about the movement in England to deport illegal immigrants, but Trump was mentioned 4 times. These five podcasts are all in the space of a few weeks, nothing should warrant this level of attention.
If you know someone close to you that has contracted TOD, make sure you make an attempt to cure them from this disorder. Ask them, ‘why are you so obsessed with a foreign leader? They will have no answer.