Looking for good will toward all? Look to Rome, not Washington | Opinion

It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome, named by the deranged American president himself, who demonstrates regularly that he is on the spectrum of sociopathic behavior and getting worse.

President Donald Trump is aiming his version of TDS at anyone who differs with him, and especially those who speak out publicly about his increasing departure from reality.

That’s where the late Rob Reiner comes in. At a moment when only words of sympathy and respect for the grief brought on by the Reiner killings were appropriate, only a deranged individual like Trump could label Reiner as having a “mind crippling disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which he claimed was known “to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump.”

We know, of course, that Reiner’s death was not related to his political beliefs.

As early as 2017 in Trump’s first term, Reiner called Trump “mentally unfit,” in sync with medical professionals today weighing in on Trump’s cognitive decline, which seems scarier than ever with the risk of nuclear conflicts mushrooming out of control from local or regional conflicts. In this case, it might be an unhinged Trump pressing the nuclear button out of vengeful spite.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines syndrome as “a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition.” This column cannot fit the words to describe the signs and symptoms of Trump’s descent to fascist madness, but there is little doubt that Trump’s diagnosis has landed on the wrong patient.

The evidence of this man’s daily behavior clearly shows a deranged president who departs from reality regularly as he chooses vile language to attack and belittle anyone who stands in his way. In a recent Veterans Day speech, he called his political opponents “vermin,” classifying them as more serious enemies than Russia, China or North Korea.

That kind of dehumanizing language aimed at opponents of his or those he views as insignificant specs of humanity has no place in a nation that rejected that kind of rule for a government of, by and for the people. In this holiday season, when the season’s greetings celebrate and foster peace, love and good will toward men and women, Trump’s behavior is anything but. It fulfills only one important requirement of his, and that is to connect with his MAGA crowd, who he is teaching to be as crude and vulgar as he.

Even the Trump administration’s version of Christianity is a rancorous and foreboding lesson for his MAGA troops. In a recent effort of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to impose the Christian faith on the military, the evangelical Franklin Graham delivered a sermon at a Pentagon service professing that, “We know God loves, but did you know God also hates? That God is also a god of war?”

To find leadership that embraces the flipside of “hateful Christianity,” the best place to travel is Rome — Vatican City in particular. There we find a new pope, Leo XIV, who reaches out to people of all faiths. When he was inaugurated, he met with religious leaders from the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other faiths, and said, “now is the time for dialogue and building bridges.”

Bridges are what Trump destroys every time he opens his mouth.

Leo has emerged as the antithesis of Trump. Continuing in the vein of Pope Francis’ compassionate leadership, Leo speaks out for social justice, immigration and inclusivity. A vocal critic of Trump, this pope is a former missionary whose focus on marginalized communities is a glaring contrast to Trump’s heavy-handed approach of invading our communities with ICE thugs and removing hardworking residents, many of whom are immigrants living here in the U.S. for years.

Leo’s most recent appointment of a new archbishop of New York City, Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, speaks volumes about how the new pope will spend his papacy, and it bears no resemblance to the language and policies of the mean-spirited American president.

The archbishop the pope is replacing, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, is an outspoken conservative who offered prayers at both of Trump’s inaugurations. Dolan described the assassinated activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk as a “modern-day St. Paul.” Under Canon Law, the pope could have set aside Dolan’s retirement until he turned 80, but there seems little doubt that Dolan was speaking out of step with the new pope at a time when the Catholic Church must offer the moral leadership absent from today’s presidential leadership.

When an American president and New York’s archbishop corrupt the English language, as Dolan did in describing Kirk, or as Trump does daily with vicious attacks, it’s time to look elsewhere for the moral clarity we should expect from leaders speaking to their publics.

For those of us searching for good will toward men and women this holiday season, consider the pope’s appointment of Hicks to be a Christmas present wrapped with a spirit of love and peace. Like Leo, Hicks also served as a missionary in Latin America, where he spent five years in El Salvador as a regional director for an orphanage network.

It seems no accident that Leo’s choice for archbishop of the nation’s largest congregation of faithful would be a bishop who told New York City that he was formed by the Latino church. Hicks speaks Spanish and tells his new flock he has “a great heart for the Latino community,” His appointment is a distinct retort to Trump’s use of ruthless ICE agents who target Latinos in American cities and towns.

As we approach the new year, it’s my fondest hope we can look back on 2025, not through the lens of an American president who saves his crudest language for those least able to defend themselves. Instead, let’s celebrate the season by applauding the work of two men, both from the heartland of Chicago, Leo and Hicks, who now define what it means to be a Catholic, but who will also improve the language of the town square — which has been diminished and degraded by an American president

Here’s to a new year when a language celebrating human dignity and respect for all peoples might drown out the darkest and most despicable language of the American president.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio, a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman and a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.