Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Sounding the alarm over TDS

Sounding the alarm over TDS

Former President Donald Trump boards his airplane, known as Trump Force One, in route to Iowa at Palm Beach International Airport on Monday, March 13, 2023, in West Palm Beach, FL.

Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Lynn Schmidt is a syndicated columnist and Editorial Board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

At the risk of sounding like someone suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome or TDS, those of us in the pro-democracy coalition need to start sounding the alarm, again. Our democracy is far from being out of the woods and we are headed for a trap.


TDS is usually used by supporters of the former president or some in the media to discredit criticisms of Trump’s words or actions. It is a way of reframing the debate by suggesting that those who speak out against Trump are incapable of discerning what they just witnessed. It is used to exhaust and disparage those who speak out in defense of liberal democratic values. My fear is that these attacks are working.

Last week former president Donald Trump released a poorly lit video in which he essentially says that Russia is not our enemy, our fellow Americans are. Think about that for a moment or shall I say, discern what we are witnessing. For those of us who love our democratic republic and not only hope it survives but want to strengthen it, we need to start paying attention, again. Here are a few noteworthy lines from Trump’s video, each of which are more frightening than the next:

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

“The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the Deep Staters and put America first.”

“Finally, we have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally reevaluating NATO's (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) purpose and NATO's mission.”

“But the greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia. It’s probably, more than anything else, ourselves and some of the horrible USA hating people representing us.”

Most Americans may not be listening to Trump but make no mistake, Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping certainly are.

A former president of the United States and the leading candidate for the 2024 presidential race of one of our two major political parties is telling us and the world that he sides with Putin over Americans. Trump would rather we ally with the same man who the International Criminal Court just issued an arrest warrant for concerning war crimes. Earlier this week, Xi visited Putin in Moscow. A Kremlin statement announcing Xi’s visit "at the invitation" of the Russian leader to discuss "issues of further development of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China."

Trump reiterated his plans to dismantle NATO. Here’s a reminder that NATO was created in 1949 to serve three purposes: “deterring Soviet expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encouraging European political integration.” While Ukraine is not a NATO member, NATO has committed both political and practical assistance to Ukraine. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his book “The Room Where it Happened” that he had to convince Trump not to quit NATO in the middle of a 2018 summit. “In a second Trump term, I think he may well have withdrawn from NATO,” Bolton said. “And I think Putin was waiting for that.”

Last week, former Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, DC. He called Jan. 6, 2021 “a tragic day” and went on to say, “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

Pundits have since been criticizing Pence for not testifying before the U.S. House January 6 Select Committee and for resisting Special Counsel Jack Smith’s subpoena. While those criticisms are valid, we are missing the broader point. We are skipping over his actual words. Pence is also sounding an alarm. Granted it might be more like a quiet whistle than an alarm, but it’s out there.

Now is the time for the Republican party, sans Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who is also anti-Ukraine, and all others who support democracy here and abroad, to figure out how to shut Trump down before it is too late. Of course, GOP elites have cowardly missed the multiple off ramps from Trump’s and the Republican base voter’s hold on the party. Let’s encourage them not to skip this most important one.

Trump is telling us exactly what he intends to do. It is our own fault if we don’t wake up and recognize this before it is too late. We need to reject the numbness, stop turning against one another, and turn together and repudiate Trump. Our fellow Americans are not the enemy here. Instead, let us, in a bipartisan way, champion democracy. Speak the truth and fight for our democratic values.

To quote the famous line from the 1986 film “The Fly”, if we don’t stop Trump now, we should “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

Read More

Trump Must Take Proactive Approach to AI and Jobs

Build a Software Development Team to Running Your Business Growth. Software Engineers on the project discuss a database design workflow and technical issues in a tech business office.

Getty Images//Stock Photo

Trump Must Take Proactive Approach to AI and Jobs


Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly disrupting America’s job market. Within the next decade, positions such as administrative assistants, cashiers, postal clerks, and data entry workers could be fully automated. Although the World Economic Forum expects a net increase of 78 million jobs, significant policy efforts will be required to support millions of displaced workers. The Trump administration should craft a comprehensive plan to tackle AI-driven job losses and ensure a fair transition for all.

As AI is expected to reshape nearly 40% of workers’ skills over the next five years, investing in workforce development is crucial. To be proactive, the administration should establish partnerships to provide subsidized retraining programs in high-demand fields like cybersecurity, healthcare, and renewable energy. Providing tax incentives for companies that implement in-house reskilling initiatives could further accelerate this transition.

Keep ReadingShow less
As Trump policy changes loom, nearly half of farmworkers lack legal status

Immigrant farm workers hoe weeds in a farm field of produce.

Getty Images//Rand22
We play a role in our political opponents growing more extreme

A pair of red and blue boxing gloves.

Getty Images / Shana Novak

We play a role in our political opponents growing more extreme

As the election dust settles, one thing remains unchanged: America is deeply divided.

Just as before the election, many are hyper-focused on the extreme ideas and actions of their opponents. Democrats are shocked that so many could overlook Trump’s extreme behavior, as they see it: his high-conflict approach to leadership, his disrespect for democratic processes. Whereas Trump’s supporters see his win as evidence supporting the view that the left has grown increasingly extreme and out-of-touch.

Keep ReadingShow less
From Fixers to Builders
Illustration by iStock/DrAfter123

From Fixers to Builders

This piece was originally published in the Stanford Innovation Review on January 9, 2025.

How do we get people of all political identities to willingly support social progress without compromising anyone’s values? In September 2024, two months before the American public voted Republicans into control of every branch of the US national government, that question was definitively answered at a private, non-political gathering of philanthropic foundation executives and their communications officers.

Keep ReadingShow less