Sen. John Fetterman accused Democrats of becoming consumed by “Trump Derangement Syndrome” while defending President Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran.
The Pennsylvania Democrat delivered the remarks during a podcast interview with journalist Nick Gillespie, where he repeatedly broke with fellow Democrats on foreign policy, artificial intelligence, and the party’s anti-Trump obsession.
Asked directly whether he trusted military assessments coming from the Trump administration, Fetterman gave an immediate answer.
“100%, I trust the Trump administration, and Trump a hell of a lot more than I would ever trust the Iranians or the Chinese or the Russians,” Fetterman said.
“We are all Americans. That’s what we’re forgetting,” he continued. “The Democratic Party can’t become the TDS party. … And clearly that’s where we are right now.”
Fetterman clarified that he does not support every aspect of the administration’s handling of the war.
“That does not mean you agree on every tactic that’s happened,” he said. “I don’t appreciate the gamification of the Iranian war.”
Still, the senator defended military action against Tehran and argued many Democrats have applied a glaring double standard to the conflict.
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“We have a nuclear power at the cusp, and it’s entirely appropriate to hold them accountable for what they’ve done,” Fetterman noted.
“And clearly a lot of people in the world care and had strong opinions on Gaza, well then, why don’t you have the same kinds of views and condemn Iran too?”
Fetterman pointed to Iran’s violent crackdowns on anti-regime protesters and accused activists and college campuses of largely ignoring mass killings carried out by the Islamic Republic.
“The same people that were outraged about the war in Gaza,” he added. “They gave no f—s about Iran executing 30,000, 40,000 of its young people. Zero college campuses.”
Gillespie then pressed Fetterman on why so many progressive activists appeared intensely focused on Gaza while showing comparatively little outrage toward Iran.
“It’s because the rifles weren’t in Jewish hands,” Fetterman replied.
The senator then accused parts of the political left of embracing antisemitism under the banner of progressive activism.
“So, without a doubt, my party’s become intensely anti-Israel,” he continued.
“And it’s strange to me the most progressive part of the American conversation, we won’t stand, and we will betray the one single nation in the region that has the kinds of values and lives the way it has.”
Fetterman has increasingly isolated himself from many Senate Democrats since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
While progressive lawmakers pushed for ceasefire resolutions and criticized Israel’s military response in Gaza, Fetterman emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s loudest pro-Israel voices.
During the podcast interview, Fetterman suggested the ideological direction of the Democratic Party, not his own views, had dramatically shifted.
Gillespie asked Fetterman how he reconciled his current positions with his earlier support for Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic primary.
“Well, I mean, you know, in 2016, it was much more about the minimum wage and some other very basic kinds of thing,” he explained.
“And now that’s, that’s just turned into much more standing with like Cuba, standing with Venezuela, standing with the Iranian regime and, and turn that into much more becoming more increasingly anti-American for me. So, my views really haven’t changed that much.”
Fetterman also argued the Democratic Party’s fixation on opposing Trump has become politically self-destructive.
He pointed to the party’s 2024 election defeat as evidence that voters had grown exhausted by constant anti-Trump messaging.
“What’s really changed is the party,” Fetterman said. “And in 2024, I was campaigning for Kamala Harris there as a Democrat. It was very clear we were going to lose.”
“A lot of the excesses that we’ve had in 2020 came back to revisit … the excess of the party back then summoned the second term of the Trump administration.”
Fetterman has delivered similar warnings publicly in recent months. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, he rejected speculation that he planned to switch parties while still criticizing Democrats for defining themselves entirely through opposition to Trump.
He wrote that Democrat lawmakers “cannot simply be the opposite of whatever President Donald Trump says.”
He later sharpened the criticism during an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“My colleagues, and people that are running, whether for the Senate or the House, they’re literally running on f— Trump,” Fetterman said.
“They have campaign commercials [with that message]. It’s absurd,” he noted. “I refuse to engage in those extreme terms, and we have to find a better way forward.”
Fetterman also broke with progressives on artificial intelligence and energy policy during Wednesday’s interview.
The senator mocked growing Democratic opposition to AI expansion and data centers, arguing the United States risks handing technological dominance to China.
“You know, people in my party are now becoming anti-AI and data centers,” Fetterman said in a separate Fox News interview referenced during the discussion.
“You know, people in my party are calling for a moratorium in our country. That’s lunacy. That’s China-first kind of a policy in our nation,” he added. “I’ll be the one Democrat to just stand up and say that’s ridiculous.”
Democrat Sen. John Fetterman rips Democrats becoming “anti-AI” and for pushing an AI moratorium, calling it “lunacy” and a “China‑first” move.
Fetterman: “In the Democratic Party, you know, you know, something that's so important that's going to transform our world, AI. You… pic.twitter.com/4ldkE6dsJJ
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 14, 2026
Fetterman’s comments directly clashed with progressive figures including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have pushed for stricter national limits on AI infrastructure and data-center growth.
Sanders previously argued the country needs a federal moratorium on AI data centers until stronger safeguards are established for workers, civil liberties, and environmental protections.
Fetterman instead framed the issue as an economic and geopolitical race the United States cannot afford to lose. “We have to be the people that build the chassis of AI,” he stated.
The senator also warned Democrats have lost touch with working-class voters and traditional union households that once formed the backbone of the party.
“And now I think we effectively can count that a lot of those traditional union members have already left the Democratic Party,” Fetterman said.
“And that’s where we are. And it’s been a serious realignment of parts of our base.”
Bravo Fetterman Bravo
Fetterman has been a surprise. When he was first running I just saw him as a typical dimwit and was surprised with his health issues that he was still elected.
Now I see a DNC guy who can think for himself. And he is right about the DNC going to the dogs. Their vicious attacks and failure to act like true Americans is disgusting. They fight for illegal aliens and criminals ignoring what their constituents need. And I can say their working class does not need a plantation platform of illegals taking jobs, lowering the wages, and making the billionaires pay less for laborers. And that is exactly what most of the elected dimwits are giving out to their highest bidders.
So good luck Fetterman, you are surrounded by several village idiots that are sucking in all the payola that is payment for their stupidity voting. The idiots who surround you are dangerous and should not return to power. The constituents of the DNC should be disappointed in the village idiots too.
And talk about overnight rich, I think several like AOC are the ones linked to the new millionaires moving towards the billionaire zone from big payola! DNC voters need to check out the wealth of their elected officials, it is telling! And all on the squad of village DNC idiots need to be voted out. Their interest is for themselves and they lie, cheat and steal to get rich on their constituents who believe their lies and vote them in blindly!