Turns out Donald Trump is even more dangerously deranged than we thought
The nation’s top mental health professionals have long been sounding the alarm on Donald Trump. Now that impeachment appears imminent, over 650 American psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals are issuing a new urgent alert. In a petition to the House Judiciary Committee, the World Mental Health Coalition warns that “Donald Trump has the real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation” and urges Congress to consult them to get recommendations on how to “constrain [Trump’s] destructive impulses.”
Any President facing impeachment must confront strong feelings of anger, fear, and frustration. However, when Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached, no one expected these leaders would take the world down with them. President Richard Nixon, in fact, chose to resign before the votes for impeachment could even be cast.
Trump is different — and impeachment can make him highly dangerous. The Coalition notes that “Impeachment is the ultimate rebuke of a president, which President Trump has intensely feared, at least since the appointment of the special counsel.” Since Trump “is unable to take responsibility for any error, mistake, or failing,” the Coalition explains that his natural response to feeling under attack from impeachment would be “to blame others and to attack the perceived source of his humiliation.”
The Coalition warns that impeachment could trigger a narcissistic attack by Trump that could be particularly “brutal and destructive.” Since impeachment does not remove any of a President’s constitutional powers, Trump would still have the same authority to use our nation’s nuclear codes if he so chooses. The difference is it would be an even more unstable and vengeful Trump behind those controls. Short of initiating a nuclear holocaust, the Coalition notes, “there are many other dangers [Trump] can pose by the use, fueled by rage, of his assumed absolute executive authority, and by the loyalists who serve him.”
As of this writing, it still appears likely that the House will vote to impeach Trump, yet the Senate will refuse to remove him. No matter which way these historic votes may go, Congress has the solemn responsibility of understanding that the biggest current threat to the United States is its unbalanced and unhinged leader. America’s top mental health professionals have come together in an unprecedented fashion to urge Congress to hear them out. Every member of Congress swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and the time to honor that oath is now.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month