Trump trauma: A sign of doomsday or mass derangement?

Jonathan Chait won't go so far as to compare Donald Trump toa fascist, a Nazi orHitler, but he claims the election of Trump to the U.S. presidencyisa tragedy for the world.

In fact, it's the "worst thing that has happened to the world in my life," said the 44-year-old columnist for New York magazine. In the long term, he said, it will be much worse than the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly3,000 people.

"I absolutelythink it will be worse," Chait said about Trump's presidency. "I absolutelythink it will do, over the long run, much more harm to innocent people, much more suffering and [lead to] much more deaths than9/11, as awful as 9/11 was."

Worse than the hundreds of thousands killed during theRwandan genocide? The hundreds of thousands ofSyrians killed in the civil war?

Yes and yes, according to Chait.

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EliminatingObamacare itself would lead tomore deaths in a year than Sept. 11, he said. And the amount of sufferingand deaths that would follow bypulling the plug on the Paris climate change agreement and ignoring global warming would radically exceed those death tollsas well, Chait said.

He is certainly not alone infeeling thatTrump's surprise victoryis a tragedy.

Twitter has been awash with comparisons of Trump toHitler and the attacks on New York and Washington 15 years ago.Some have flipped the dates around, saying now that 11/9 Nov. 9, the day after the election is the new 9/11.

Celebrities, many of whom supported Hillary Clinton, have expressed their sorrows.

In an interview, Robert De Niro said he felt thesame as he did after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted on election night a reference to Nazi Germany.

Meanwhile, some U.S.universities rushed to console students who said they felt traumatized by the results.Stanford University offeredcounsellingand psychological services for those who needed "to talk, need support or who have short- or long-term concerns."

Cornell University, according to the Cornell Review, held a "cry in" so students would be able to"hold each other, cry, and hug" and "show that we are still here, we are not erased, and we matter."

Adorm at the University of Pennsylvania hadoffered anxious studentsa "breathing space" room that included kittiesandpuppies tocuddle, snacks and colouring pages.

'Unprecedented'

"As a historian, one of the things Ialways do, Itell my studentsdon't overuse the word 'unprecedented,'said McGill University history professor Gil Troy. "I think really this time we can use it."

As Troy points out, it's not the first time the U.S. hasreacted strongly to an election. In 1860, he said, people were so upset by Abraham Lincoln's election that seven states seceded.

The election of Ronald Reagan in November1980stoked fears among Democrats, many of whom dismissed the former actor and weredespondent that thecountry would be moving in a conservative direction.

"I am scared that if Ronald Reagan gets into office, we are going to see more of the Ku Klux Klan and a resurgence of the Nazi Party," Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, said at the time.

In 1972,there was outrage and protests over there-election of Richard Nixon.

Americans in disbelief

But none of it compares with the reaction toTrump's election. JulianZelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, saidAmericans are indisbelief that someone with so little political experience is now in power.

"It's not simply anger, it's not simply frustration that thiswent rightrather than left. It'sthis uncertaintyabout who this person is who is going to have all this influence," he said.

Combine that, said Zelizer, withtheshock that someone in 2016 could run acampaign using the rhetoric Trump employed about different ethnic and religious groups and win.

"This is certainly at the far end of the spectrum of how intense the feelings are," he said.

Hitler comparisons set the bar low

GlennReynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennesseeand author of theweblogInstapundit, said the "culture of hysteria" against Trump and the comparisons to Hitler will only backfire againsthis opponents.

"So, if I'mTrump,I'dactually love that," he said. "Because first of all, it makes my opponents look stupid and flighty. And second of all, it meansthat all I have to do to succeed is not be Hitler.You're setting the bar really low, and how smart is that?"

Reynolds, who's no fan of Trump,recently wrote an article forUSA Todaycondemning universities for offering support services to students after the election.

"When universities say the election of Trumpis so traumaticthat we're basicallygoing to let people grieve and get counselling like we would after a terrorist attack,you're taking sides," he wrote.

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Reynolds said the reaction isall part of anoveralltrend of "infantilizing" college students.

"In the 70s, everybody was like, 'You're an adult when you're 18.' And now, we do preschool stuff for peoplewho are 21. It's absurd."

Some Trump supporters say the reaction to the election is somewhat akin to so-calledBush derangement syndrome.

Theterm, coined by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, described "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency, nay,the very existence of George W. Bush."

So, is this backlash a form of Trump derangement syndrome?

"Oh, big league, as Trump would say," Reynolds said.