A group of four psychiatrists warned Congressional leaders on Monday that President Donald Trump has recently shown “all behavioral signs of a personality in serious crisis,” presenting a “constitutional emergency” that demands immediate action from lawmakers and administration officials.
Jeffrey Sachs, a psychiatrist and Columbia University professor who helped write the letter, pointed to President Trump’s recent genocidal threat to bomb Iran to destroy its “entire civilization” and take the country “back to the Stone Age” as an example of “crossing the threshold” rhetoric in a letter to leading Republican and Democratic members of both houses of Congress.
“President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have identified through dozens of independent evaluations as the ‘dark triad’ of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy,” the letter states. “Rather than constituting a clinical diagnosis, this trait-based assessment is based on behavioral observations and is particularly useful in assessing the level of risk posed by individuals in positions of political leadership. We do not offer this as a clinical verdict. We offer this as a considered judgment of a significant portion of expert opinion, based on well-researched evidence that is consistent, cumulative, and irrefutable.”
The psychiatrist who signed the letter is James Gilligan, clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University. Prudence Grugshon, former president of the American Psychoanalytic Association and former vice president of the World Federation for Mental Health. Bandi Lee, president of the World Federation for Mental Health and former professor at Yale School of Medicine. James Melikangas, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University.
The experts’ letter comes amid growing calls from Congressional Democrats to remove President Trump from office, regardless of impeachment proceedings or the path provided by the 25th Amendment.
Psychiatrists have stopped short of calling for President Trump’s immediate removal from office. Rather, it calls on Congress to reestablish constitutional authority for war in response to the president’s unauthorized attack on Iran. President Trump will convene “emergency talks” with top government officials to prevent the situation from escalating “towards catastrophe.” He will then “commence formal discussions” with Vice President J.D. Vance and the Cabinet regarding the suitability of the president under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
“We recognize the gravity of what we are asking. We ask because the gravity of the situation demands it,” the letter said. “A president who publicly threatens to destroy foreign civilizations, launches bombing campaigns and then imposes naval blockades without Congressional authorization, and who exhibits every behavioral sign of a personality in deep crisis is not just a political problem. He is a constitutional emergency. Mechanisms exist for dealing with such emergencies, and they were written into the Constitution and its amendments precisely for moments like this.”
The letter was released days after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to White House physician Sean Barbavera requesting “an immediate and comprehensive cognitive-neurological evaluation of President Donald Trump and the full disclosure of its results,” specifically in response to President Donald Trump’s “increasingly erratic, incoherent, and alarming public statements” regarding the war against Iran.
“This is clearly beyond the realm of normal politics,” Raskin wrote. “When the President of the United States threatens to wipe out civilization on social media, rants about combat missions with children at the Easter Egg Roll, and unleashes profanity-filled rants on Easter morning, we are undoubtedly entering an area of serious medical difficulty and concern.”
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