But there is a stronger version of the TDS theory. Every president has critics who let their political and emotional biases color their judgments. And Trump may elicit this reaction marginally more than previous presidents did. At the very least, there are instances when journalists primed to expect the worst misrepresent what Trump says, and when Democrats criticize Trump hyperbolically. Somewhere in America, there is probably even a doctor or two who is a bit more skeptical of hydroxychloroquine than they should be because they don’t like Trump. Everyone succumbing to this distorting phenomenon should try harder to be scrupulously accurate and rational. I am not letting them off the hook. But notice that this more modest theory still carries the same implication.

Insofar as Trump inspires more hatred than other presidents did, insofar as the reaction to him inflames more passions and distorts more thinking, Trump is that much worse for the United States.

People who invoke TDS tend to be gleefully disparaging the other coalition. But if they are right to any degree, they are implicitly conceding a damning indictment of Trump.