By now, the majority of Trump supporters, myself included, have all had the same experience: family members or friends, many of them lifelong friends, who decide they just cannot endure anyone around them who supports Donald Trump. While it is sad and painful, it does tend to separate the wheat from the chaff in our lives. Then, there is another kind of friend. The one who is definitely conservative, but is no fan of President Trump. That's okay. There are still some people who can enjoy a healthy debate among friends and still be, well... friends. But those same friends who do respect your Trump support may do something else.
Yes, I support President Trump. I also disagree with him once in a while. No, we are not in a cult and that separates US from the left.
— NukeTaco ™️🇺🇸 (@TacoforFive1) June 6, 2025
I will continue to support the man who put it all on the line to MAGA when he didn’t have to. pic.twitter.com/yVPEwUj1ZA
I have one of those friends. I love him like a brother, and we have engaged in plenty of political mischief over the years, and absolutely plan to engage in much more. While I absolutely respect his opinions of the president, I feel like I get something else. Every so often, I get a text message or a Facebook message with a tone that, if it had sound, would sound something like this: "Look at this! Look what Trump did! Look what Trump said! Look over here at this!" You get the picture. The feeling I get is one of someone trying to change my mind about my support for Donald Trump.
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My first thought is that sending me the equivalent of a screaming National Enquirer-like headline is not going to change my mind. I like to think I am open-minded, and if I am going to change my opinion, it is going to be of my own volition. But I started to look beyond the hair-on-fire personal messages to the broader picture, and it raises a question I haven't heard an answer to from anyone. Why is Donald Trump held to a higher moral standard than literally anyone else on the planet?
Those of us of a certain age can remember sitting in a doctor's office or beauty salon in the '80s and '90s, thumbing through magazines like "People," and reading about the exploits of Donald Trump. He was a rich guy who did rich guy things. We smiled and kind of chuckled. But as soon as he became a politician, that reasonable standard went right out the window.
I SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP 100+%!!! @realDonaldTrump HAS ALWAYS BEEN AMERICA FIRST! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
— On A Trump Bender 3-Times A Charm! (@TrumpBender_3) June 5, 2025
2ND TERM HE STILL WORKS FOR FREE AND CONTINUES TO KICK A**!
KEEP GOING DJT!!!
💪🇺🇸🦅 pic.twitter.com/6qgxDZKzGF
Those of us of that same age also appreciate that Facebook meme about having done all of our stupid stuff before social media. Again, myself included. And we tend to forget that we all have a past, including politicians who were once themselves youthful boneheads. Conservatives pointed and yelled, "Look over there," when tales of a young Barack Obama being part of a group of pot-smoking friends in college who called themselves "the Choom Gang" surfaced. Fortunately for Obama, he had the mainstream media to run cover for him, and it quickly disappeared. George W. Bush has been open about being a heavy drinker as a young man. Right before the 2000 Presidential election, he acknowledged a 1976 arrest for driving under the influence. Democrats hoped that the revelation would doom Bush, and the media did its best to make it a long-term story, but it too didn't stick around.
So, why has the morality meter shot up for Donald Trump, even among some conservatives, but not for anyone else? In all fairness, this same friend and I have had multiple conversations about the fact that, at least for conservative candidates, the anal exam of their past seems to be deepening with every election cycle. If there is even one minute irregularity, they can kiss their candidacy goodbye, courtesy of their own party. Vetting candidates is certainly important. But then we wonder why no one wants to run for office.
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I teased this friend about being in Stage One of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). I really was just kidding. But could the impossible moral compass be a side effect? I also thought about the future. In 2029, Donald Trump will leave the White House and spend his days playing golf and enjoying his grandchildren. TDS in its many forms is like flood water; it will have to go somewhere. Does it become Vance Derangement Syndrome, Rubio Derangement Syndrome after that? Where does it end? Or does it ever end?
Disagreement among conservatives over Trump's policies and actions is more than okay; it's healthy. But Donald Trump has never claimed to be a Boy Scout, and his supporters are okay with that.
I support President Trump more today than I ever have .
— Lee 🦅 🇺🇸 (@Leerose1985) September 1, 2025
So proud.
