Trump Derangement Syndrome: Some Historical Perspective on Political Manias : The Other McCain

Posted on | May 30, 2026 | No Comments

When you look at that kind of headline, how can you doubt that pandemic of Trump Derangement Syndrome has become toxic?

A TikToker has lost her job after posting a video that appeared to pray for former Attorney General Pam Bondi to suffer permanently from cancer, prompting outrage across social media.
In the video, the TikToker says, “Dear MAGA Lord Jesus, please let her end up with a hole in her throat that she has to push every time she speaks. Dear God, if there is a MAGA God, please let Pam Bondi’s throat cancer be the worst case of cancer anybody’s ever seen.”
The TikTok, posted by @glitterandcrossbones, which is currently set to private, appeared to have been posted by Caitlyn Aguiar, who had worked as an assistant vice president for the Inbound Contact Center at Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union since January 2024, according to her LinkedIn page, which appears to have been taken down.
Bondi, 60, who was fired from the Department of Justice in early April, has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and undergone treatment.
In the TikTok, Aguiar continued, “Please let her have to take on the suffering that she’s unleashed upon the thousands, millions, dare I say, of Americans in this country. . . . Please, dear MAGA Lord Jesus…”
She added, “Please let this be the karma that she so justly deserves, MAGA Lord Jesus. Amen.”

Massachusetts Democrat Caitlyn Aguiar, who in a video cheered on Pam Bondi’s cancer diagnosis and said she hopes she dies a painful death, has been fired from her job at Jeanne D’Arc just a day after we made the company aware of her rhetoric. pic.twitter.com/Pan7Y9g1GA

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) May 29, 2026

How can it be that someone working as the assistant vice president of a financial institution could think this way? And believe she could post something like that online without consequences?

The problem is not just that a lot of Democrats are insane — although, of course they are — but that so many people, including Republicans, are incapable of thinking outside of the here-and-now of politics, the 24/7 news cycle reinforced by constant immersion in social media noise.

For me, as a journalist, the tyranny of the news cycle is a danger that I must struggle to resist. It helps that there was no Internet at all when I got started, and that it was only after more than 20 years in newspaper business that I launched out into the world of blogging and social media. Like, I remember when dial-up modems, Usenet bulletin boards and AOL were “the new thing,” and therefore have some perspective on the contemporary madness that spawns TikTok meltdowns.

Lose your job for ranting about Pam Bondi? Of the many Cabinet secretaries I’ve seen come and go in my lifetime, there were certainly quite a few I intensely disliked, but I am certain I never said anything about, e.g., Janet Reno that would even begin to compare with what this woman said about Pam Bondi. And why? What is the “suffering” that Bondi allegedly “unleashed”? Pretty doggone sure she never ordered an attack that incinerated 86 Americans, as was the case at Waco.

Political passions come and go. Today’s headline news will disappear when some new controversy comes along tomorrow, and within 10 or 20 years, almost everything we are currently arguing about will be entirely forgotten. How often do I find myself having to explain to people exactly what happened during the Lewinsky scandal, or how the invasion of Iraq went sideways? These are events that dominated the headlines for months at a time, in recent memory, and yet are just vaguely remembered by most Americans. The people burning down their own lives with toxic TikTok rants are trapped in short-term thinking.

When I was packing for our trip to Alaska, knowing I’d be without an Internet connection for many hours, I brought along the third volume of Winston Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, which I’ve read at least twice before, but enjoy re-reading every so often because it’s fascinating. Here you have world-historical events, involving some of the most eminent figures in British history, and most people nowadays know absolutely nothing about it. Here is the Duke of Marlborough smashing the French at Blenheim — arguably the greatest victory ever won by an English army — and it means nothing to the average American. Blenheim? Never heard of it. Marlborough? Isn’t that a cigarette brand? Even among college-educated Americans, how many of them can even tell you one fact about the War of the Spanish Succession?

Marlborough at Blenheim, 1704

If the entire War of the Spanish Succession can vanish from popular memory, what are the chances that any of our grandchildren will ever hear the name Pam Bondi? How crazy do you have to be to think you’re going to “make a difference” in the world by whipping out your phone to record a TikTok diatribe about the former Attorney General?

One of the most interesting characters of the 1700s was Robert Walpole, the first to be called Prime Minister of England. During the reign of King George I and continuing into the reign of King George II, Walpole did something both commendable and remarkable — he made politics boring. The unchallenged ascendancy of the Whigs, and a policy aimed at peace and prosperity, had the effect of causing the English people to forget all the controversies that had previously divided them. It was only after Walpole left the ministry (he died in 1745) that the course of events began that led ultimately to the American Revolution.

America today could use a Walpole, a president who could usher in an era of quiet competence, resting upon a decisive and durable political majority. If you look back over the past 40 years, you see why our politics have become so toxic. Despite the 12-year White House tenure of Reagan-Bush (1981-93), Republicans never had a majority at the congressional level during those years. After Clinton was elected in 1992, however, the reaction to his first two years in office produced the “Republican Revolution” that led to 12 years of GOP control of the House. Since then, we’ve gone through the Lewinsky scandal (1998), the Bush-vs.-Gore Florida recount 2000), the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and repeated changes of the congressional majority (2006, 2010, 2018, 2022). The balance between the two major parties is so close that it seems impossible for either of them to maintain control for very long, and the result of this fragile balance is a relentless intensification of political conflict, as each side appeals more desperately to the prejudices of its partisan base. Consequently, emotionally vulnerable people are quite literally driven mad by the nonstop bombardment of political messages intended to incite “grassroots energy,” as the consultants call it.

If we are to have an American Walpole, I think, he will have to be Republican, and he will need a majority so strong as to push the Democratic Party into a very long period of political eclipse. The opportunity is there for Marco Rubio (or J.D. Vance, or Ron DeSantis) to do this if (a) Republicans can manage to hold onto both houses of Congress in this November’s midterms, (b) any Republican can win the White House in 2028, and (c) the Trump agenda of strong border enforcement can be continued until (d) the 2030 Census peels enough House seats away from “blue” states to make a Democratic majority a forlorn hope for the next decade. This is a series of hypothetical contingencies, each dependent on the most favorable developments for Republicans, but it is nevertheless possible. All we need is a few breaks, and the next decade could finally bring us a prolonged relief from the tremendous strain we’ve endured since the 1990s.

Pray for it. Pray hard, and then pray harder.

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