CNN: Study blames president for premature births

There was an obvious need for the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” shortly after the president was elected because there had to be some way to explain the extreme and unconnected-to-reality claims being made by the president’s critics.

One critic was Joe Biden, who called him an illegitimate president despite his resounding Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton.

But now TDS has reached a new height.

CNN is reporting on a study that suggests President Trump’s election caused an increase in premature births.

Not all premature births.

Just those for Latina women.

The study published Friday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that in the nine months beginning with November 2016, reported CNN, “about 3.2 percent to 3.6 percent more preterm births to Latina women occurred above the levels of preterm births that would have been expected had the election not occurred, suggests the study.”

The report said, “Birth outcomes have long been used in medical research as indicators of acute stress among populations of women, and preterm birth in particular is linked with maternal stress, the researchers noted in their study.”

Alison Gemmill, a teacher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, stated, “Because mothers and children are particularly vulnerable to psychosocial stress, our findings suggest that political campaigns, rhetoric and policies can contribute to increased levels of preterm birth.”

“I’ve seen it all!” said Twitter news aggregator Twitchy.

“CNN demonstrates that there is literally nothing they will not try to blame on Donald Trump.”

In the nine months beginning with November 2016, about 3.2% to 3.6% more preterm births to Latina women occurred above the levels of preterm births that would have been expected had the election not occurred, the study suggests https://t.co/K92ZcM6h2T

— CNN (@CNN) July 19, 2019

“So now Donald Trump is making Latina women deliver their babies prematurely? This … is CNN.”

CNN noted there was only an “association,” “not a causal relationship,” was found. It pointed out the study ended in July 2017, only months after Trump took office, so “more research is needed.”

Twitchy reacted: “In other words, there’s no actual evidence of a direct link between Donald Trump’s victory and an increase in premature births, but CNN’s got a narrative … and they’re stickin’ to it!”

CNN explained researchers used data from births to “calculate” how many preterm births were expected. Then they counted how many were recorded.

CNN acknowledged the study “had some limitations, including that the researchers were unable to separate the data on Latina women to determine differences among those who were foreign-born versus those who were born in the United States, and only an association was found between preterm births and the presidential election — not a causal relationship.”

But the network noted the concerns expressed by one of the participants: “It’s really critical to think about the research results presented here because it’s not as if once you show there is an increased risk of preterm birth that the story is over. These children will now grow up. They will be impacted by the fact of having been a preterm birth baby.”

Lyle H. Rossiter Jr., M.D., wrote in WND last fall that TDS is real.

Some people, he noted, as they grow from child to adult, do not experience what should occur in relationships early in their life.

They then”develop personality disturbances that cause significant impairment in coping with life’s challenges. Many of these disturbances are formally catalogued by psychiatrists as personality disorders, but occasionally such impairments get labeled informally by laypersons as ‘derangement syndromes.'”

Presidential “syndromes” previously have existed, he said.

“Like past versions (Bush Derangement Syndrome, for example), the TDS is notable for its intense subjective distress. Persons suffering from a TDS experience high levels of agitation and fear about their own safety and about future prospects for a good life. The sufferer may also fear more broadly for the survival of whole nations and even for life on our planet. In fact, it is not unusual for a patient with a Trump Derangement Syndrome to predict apocalyptic events in the near future. These expected disasters are attributed to the predicted actions of Donald Trump in his role as president of the United States. In that role he is seen as an especially destructive individual bent on wreaking havoc on a highly vulnerable world,” he wrote.

They also experience “anger and rage,” he said.

“In the present case, Trump is hatefully portrayed as a diabolically villainous perpetrator of evil deeds. Calls for his death or torture or for harm to his family are not unusual and may even be displayed with pride,” he said.

“What is most striking in these syndromes, however, is not the quality and degree of emotional upset. What is most striking is the extent to which individuals suffering from the syndrome distort their perceptions of real world events, especially events in economic, social and political realms. Most prominent among those distortions is the intensely negative bias in perceptions of America in general, and of Donald Trump in particular. According to TDS sufferers, neither Trump nor America can do anything good economically, socially or politically, and neither has redeeming features,” he said.

“The mindset in this syndrome sees Trump as a hateful man bent on destroying lives. But there is no evidence to support this view. Trump is more than 70 years old and has no record of criminal behavior or history of destructiveness in other ways. He is certainly self-centered, egotistical and grandiose, and he is often boorish, insulting and contemptuous. He gets defensive easily and retaliates when offended in ways that are adolescent at best. He can be careless with facts and he lies too often. He has been unfaithful to his wife. There is ample evidence for all of these allegations on casual observation. But many of these traits have been prominent in other political figures. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, for instance, have engaged in far more serious wrongdoing, but have not evoked a fraction of the agitation that characterizes the TDS,” he said.

“In fact, Trump is not all bad. He has several good traits that are by now well known to persons who are not prejudiced against him. Stories of Trump’s personal generosity, kindness and willingness to put forth great effort for good causes are common knowledge. His record as president for only 20 months is surprisingly impressive. Under his leadership, America is enjoying resurgent economic growth, more jobs, lower taxes, fewer regulations, increased work-force participation, reduced numbers of food-stamp recipients and greater productivity. Most Americans approve of Trump’s determination to protect our country’s borders. Most Americans are more optimistic since he took office. Trump has attacked with great vigor a corrupt, illegal and massively exploitative Deep State that has become entrenched in the bowels of Washington for decades,” he added.

“By any reasonable standards, these are constructive achievements, not damaging attacks on America or Americans.”

One Twitter user said of the CNN report: “This is utterly ridiculous. There is no way to prove that is the cause and the article admits that but just keeps going on about the election. Where are the other variables? Could they maybe have had some other stress in life? No, let’s just blame trump I guess.”

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