Earlier this year, conservative activist and prankster Ben Bergquam confronted MSNBC host Joy Reid outside a New York City courthouse amid the contentious Trump trial. Bergquam suggested that Reid suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), which conservatives often accuse liberal mainstream media pundits of having.
In the clip, Bergquam approached Reid on the street, asking, “Joy, just wondering, do you think people with Trump Derangement Syndrome know they have it?” Reid looked at him, seemingly caught off guard by the comment, before stating, “You’re an idiot.” Bergquam then followed up his first comment, asking Reid about her blonde hair, comparing it to Trump’s. “And second question, did you steal Trump’s haircut, or did he steal yours?” he asked.
Reid told Bergquam, “You’re a f*****g idiot.” Walking away, the conservative activist claimed that Reid had engaged in the “cultural appropriation” of Trump’s signature hairdo while maintaining that Reid has Trump Derangement Syndrome. Bergquam continued, “Cultural appropriation haircut right there. She didn’t like that too much. Joy Reid everybody. Trump arrangement syndrome, full swing.”
Bergquam shared the video to his followers on X, writing, “EPIC video! Just got Trump-Deranged, Cultural-Appropriated-Hair, Joy Ann Reid as she was heading into the sham Trump trial in New York City! 
I don’t think she liked the questions!!!” Other high-profile conservatives reacted to the video, such as Citizen Free Press, who suggested Reid changed her following the exchange. “The world owes Ben Bergquam a debt of gratitude,” the account wrote.
The American Tribune recently reported on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) and Joy Reid’s reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election. During a post-election broadcast on MSNBC, Reid said in disbelief, “It makes no sense.” The host proceeded to question AOC on she was hearing from her constituents.
“OK. AOC, what did they say?” AOC told her, “I mean, there’s a lot of different things that we saw. I think there’s a lot of people — first of all, it’s important to note that Democrats oftentimes when we lose elections, we think that we lost people to Trump, and that is true in circumstances. But they don’t look enough at the fact that we also lost people to the couch.”
Watch Bergquam troll Reid below:
"*" indicates required fields
AOC continued, “We have two people that we’re running against. So a lot of people say, this is why I voted for you and Trump, and some people say, this is why I didn’t vote or didn’t vote top of the ticket.” Reid interjected, “Right. Skip the top of the ticket, which by the way, there’s been a lot of paranoia about the fact that Democrats were able to win statewide in some places while Kamala Harris lost, and I — keep trying to tell people, there are voters who go in and either just vote the top, Trump voters, who say I want Trump, I don’t care about Republicans.” She added, ” And the reverse who say, I’m not voting top of the ticket, but I’ll vote everybody else.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.