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Jay Nordlinger is a senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative and a contributor to The Next Move.
In recent days, as Donald Trump has intensified his alliance with Vladimir Putin, I have thought of a phrase from the beginning of the Trump era: “balls and strikes.”
Some Republican-aligned journalists said that they would be neither pro-Trump nor anti-Trump. They would be neutral umpires, calling balls and strikes. Which sounds good—reasonable. But there were always problems with this approach.
First, the umpires did not call every pitch. They were selective. Pitches that did not reflect well on Trump might not get called at all.
Second, not all pitches are equal. The attempt to overturn an election is one pitch, I suppose. The deregulation of oil and gas, another. But you see how one thing crowds out—overwhelms—the other?
This gets to the biggest problem with the balls-and-strikes approach: it may work with a normal politician, with a basic fitness for office and a basic respect for our constitutional order, but it cannot work with a Trump.
Let me review a small incident from Trump’s first term—hardly the most important thing that happened in those years but telling nonetheless.
There is a theory in the fever swamps of our land that goes like this: President Obama and Vice President Biden conspired with Iran to fake the death of Osama bin Laden. Then Biden, specifically, had members of SEAL Team Six killed, in order to cover up the conspiracy.
In October 2020, someone on Twitter tweeted this theory around. The tweeter called himself “Oscar the Midnight Rider 1111.” Donald Trump retweeted Oscar the Midnight Rider 1111.
Trump, remember, was president of the United States. Not some random Internet loon. President.
In a televised “town hall,” Trump was asked about what he had done—the theory he had amplified. “I know nothing about it,” he said. “That was a retweet. That was an opinion of somebody, and that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I don’t take a position.”
Let me ask you: How do you ump that? “A little outside”? “Caught the inside corner”? Aren’t some things beyond umping? Don’t you have to say, “Such a man should not be within a hundred miles of political power”?
Then came the 2020 election and the fire hose of lies from the White House. Trump convinced millions of Americans that the election had been stolen from them. He turned their wrath on election officials, and finally the Congress.
On January 6, a mob attacked the Congress for the purpose of halting a constitutional process, which they succeeded in doing for several hours, while the president, in the White House, watched it on television.
How do you ump that? Do you see the poverty of umping when a figure such as Donald Trump has the reins of power?
In the ensuing months and years, as the rioters were prosecuted, Trump called them “patriots” and “political prisoners.” After October 7, 2023—when Hamas attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 and taking 251 others hostage—he started calling them “hostages.” And the day he was sworn in for a second term, he pardoned them all.
Balls-and-strikes cannot cover this.
It cannot cover Trump’s staggering corruption and lawlessness. It can’t cover the personal touches, by which I mean something like, “Quiet, piggy.” This is what Trump said to a female reporter who had questioned him about Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has had a terribly corrosive effect on our society at large. How do you ump that?
ICYMI: Tune in to the latest episode of the Older/Wiser Podcast
In December 2025, the actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were stabbed to death by their mentally ill son, Nick. The president of the United States wrote that Reiner had died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
The president continued, “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”
Wild pitch? Passed ball? This goes to basic fitness, a fundamental question of character, even of mental health.
Then there is Russia. “Russia Russia Russia,” as Trump and his team like to say. Over and over, Trump says that Ukraine, not Russia, started the war. Over and over, he slams Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, as a “dictator” while praising or defending Putin.
He has the United States vote with Russia against Ukraine at the United Nations. He ended our financial support of Ukraine. He has struck an oil deal with Putin and shielded Russia from sanctions. He has deprived Ukraine of intelligence warnings, making it easier for Russia to slaughter innocents.
In brief, Trump has placed our great nation on the side of a monstrous dictator who is an enemy of all mankind. The stain on America will be hard to efface. And umping is helpless to do justice to the situation.
While denouncing Rob Reiner in death, Trump spoke of “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.” The initials “TDS” are a powerful tool in the hands of Trumpers. They use it as a club, shutting off all discussion. When they have no arguments to make, they say “TDS!” and regard themselves as triumphant.
They want you to think you’re the crazy one.
Last week, I saw a onetime colleague of mine use “TDS” on social media—unironically. How long can they keep this shtick up? If you think Donald Trump is unworthy of his office, you are not deranged. Chances are, you are simply a decent person and patriot.
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