Mark Halperin Explains Why He Thinks ‘So Many Liberals Have Trump Derangement Syndrome’

Political analyst Mark Halperin said on a Friday podcast that he believes numerous left-wing individuals suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” due to unfair media coverage.

Over 35% of Americans have “no trust at all” in the mass media, while just 31% have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence — a record low, according to a Gallup survey. On “The American Compass Podcast,” guest host Drew Holden asked Halperin, who hosts shows on his 2WAY platform featuring Americans who call in, whether the record-low trust resonates with him based on the callers on his shows.

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“You hear it from … people who supported [President Donald] Trump, some reluctantly, all the time — that the media bias from the Russia investigation through the way the attempt to assassinate him was covered, his agenda, the indictments, the attempts to keep him off the ballot,” Halperin said. “I hear from people all the time who say literally the way the media has covered those things is the reason they’re voting for Donald Trump, even though there’s a lot they don’t like.”

“There was a woman, one of the most seminal moments for me in the history of 2WAY was when a woman came on who does not like Donald Trump and did not vote for him, said after the election that she understood better why Donald Trump won and was more at peace with it because she’d heard from her fellow community members on the platform,” he added. “That she understood why he won and she felt comfortable that people who voted for him did so in good faith.”

Halperin said the anti-Trump media leaves Americans ignorant of his appeal and success.

“The reason I think so many liberals have Trump Derangement Syndrome and can’t understand him is they only hear about Donald Trump through the media that’s biased against him,” he said. “And that keeps them from being the least bit aware of why it is that he’s been successful.”

“The Office” co-star Rainn Wilson on an April 17 episode of his podcast “Soul Boom” refuted MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle’s claim that Americans’ plunging trust in the mass media stems largely from external forces such as Trump, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and X owner Elon Musk, rather than its own missteps.

“When I see this kind of insight and passion being directed at the current administration and the lack of this kind of insight and passion being directed at the previous administration — where again, I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about left-leaning news media organizations — were kind of like, ‘La la la la, everything’s fine. Look, the economy is great, la la la, immigration’s not that much of a problem,’ and really being Cleopatra, Queen of Denial,” Wilson said. “Thank you. Boom.”

The corporate media has faced backlash for spending years dismissing voters’ and Republicans’ worries regarding former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity. 

Former NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd said on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on April 9 that legacy media members refrained from blatant coverage of Biden’s age-related issues to evade the appearance of “helping Trump.”

Journalists Linsey Davis and David Muir also faced criticism after their moderation of the ABC News presidential debate between former Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris in September 2024. Viewers expressed outrage due to the moderators repeatedly fact-checking Trump, while not challenging Harris.