For ten years, Bandy Lee, a forensic and social psychiatrist, has been investigating the conduct of President Donald Trump. A former researcher and professor of Law and Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, affiliated with Harvard’s psychiatry program, she directs the World Mental Health Coalition, which investigates the psychological capacity of politicians. Not without controversy, her book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump , published in 2017 during his first term, collected essays from 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, and other experts on the president’s mental health, an issue that is once again in the spotlight.
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Danger of extinction
He has weapons at his disposal to destroy the planet seven times over”
What did you think when you saw the AI image of Trump as Jesus Christ, performing a healing?
I saw a man in an acute psychological crisis. As a psychiatrist, I often see severely ill patients who wish to see themselves as an almighty God to combat the painful feeling that they are losing their sanity. It is a defense mechanism against feelings of helplessness and lack of control, as well as against the loss of contact with reality.
Do you think we are facing an emergency situation?
I feel that we are facing a critical psychiatric emergency, which is why I have had meetings and written to the four living former presidents. We are in a situation that cannot wait for impeachment or the 25th Amendment (the one that incapacitates the president), even if they were to happen. The dangers must be contained now, largely because we have a president who is in psychiatric crisis and no one is acting, and he has control of 5,000 nuclear warheads.
A looming danger?
Due to the level of psychiatric deterioration of the president and the technology at his disposal, not only nuclear weapons, but also the most powerful army on the planet. He can easily erupt in an impulsive fit of rage that could mean the annihilation of the human species. He has weapons at his disposal to destroy the planet seven times over.
Amidst the Iran war, he said that “an entire civilization will die tonight.” Is the threat greater today than before?
The emergency has become imminent. We have called on members of Congress to act, because we cannot wait for the 25th Amendment, as is being discussed. I was very involved in discussions about the 25th Amendment during his first term. I met with more than 50 members of Congress, and progress was being made on creating a body that could remove the president for incapacity. And at that time, we were stopped by the American Psychiatric Association.
They accused you of making a diagnosis without evaluating the patient.
They said you can’t diagnose remotely, but we don’t diagnose. We are pointing out signs of danger to the public for apparently psychiatric reasons, and that second part is a duty. It is a legally binding obligation. They misinform the public by confusing both things. No one is treating the president. We are protecting society, which is one of our main obligations according to the American Psychiatric Association’s own code of ethics.
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These days, things are heard about the president’s erratic behavior, his fits of rage, his fabrications. Does all this make him dangerous?
A history of past violence is a predictor of future violence. He has been verbally aggressive. He has used violent rhetoric. He has boasted about sexual assaults. He has shown an affinity for brutal dictators. He has demonstrated an attraction to dangerous weapons, including nuclear weapons, saying things like: “Why do we have them if we don’t use them?” He is reckless and impulsive in his behavior and decision-making.
It comes from afar.
We have observed that he is unable to assimilate critical facts, information, or advice. He does not process that information. He is unable to think about the consequences before making a decision, nor to maintain a stable decision. He repeatedly changes his stance and fails to stay in touch with reality. All of this points to mental incapacity.
Is that reflected this 2026?
He is much worse. We submitted a statement of medical concerns a month ago, at the request of senators, in which we indicated his worsening cognitive functioning, his grandiose and delusional beliefs, which again are worse, in which he portrays himself as the Pope, as a warrior hero, throwing feces at civilians, and now he portrays himself as Jesus Christ.
There’s more…
We are talking about severely impaired judgment and highly affected impulse control. He has advocated for the use of lethal force against civilians and has encouraged extrajudicial executions. He also exhibits a significant loss of self-control, which is disinhibition, getting stuck in the same thoughts or actions, as well as compulsive behaviors, such as 150 posts on his social network in one night, in addition to a fixation on supposed enemies, persecutory ideas, disproportionate attacks on individuals and institutions. And a threat to security.
People around him say he’s not the same as he used to be.
He is worse because we did everything we could to worsen his psychiatric condition. We gave him no containment, no treatment, no limits, and the result is that his psychiatric condition has drastically worsened.
But he keeps saying he’s the best president, the one who heals.
One of the first things lost when mental health deteriorates is introspection or the ability to recognize that something is wrong. The deeper he goes into the psychotic spiral he is in, the less he will recognize that he is doing something wrong. He will deny any deterioration and will act in the opposite direction of what would be good for his mental health. And he has filled his Cabinet with people who either imitate him or reflect that they are equally deteriorated.
