On April 13 an open letter signed by more than 200 mental health professionals, was sent to the leadership of both parties in Congress to warn that President Donald Trump exhibits what is identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. These mental health professionals warn that President Trump is psychologically unstable and dangerous, which represents a constitutional emergency. The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The text of the letter will also appear as a full-page ad in the New York Times.
These mental health professionals said they were writing “with a sense of urgency” on the matter. They wrote that the President’s behavior has “crossed a threshold that demands the immediate and bipartisan attention of Congress.” They insist that this is not based on partisan politics, but rather “a judgment grounded in observable fact, consistent professional assessment, and the constitutional responsibilities that your offices carry…. A President … who shows every behavioral sign of a personality in an acute crisis is not merely a political problem. He is a constitutional emergency. The mechanisms for addressing such an emergency exist…. We recognize the gravity of what we are asking. We ask it because the gravity of the situation demands it.”
The letter states: “President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the ‘Dark Triad’ of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Rather than constituting a clinical diagnosis, this trait-based assessment is grounded in behavioral observation and is particularly useful for assessing the level of danger an individual poses in a political leadership position. We do not offer this as a clinical verdict. We offer it as the considered judgment of a substantial body of professional opinion, based on well-researched evidence that is consistent, accumulating, and impossible to dismiss.”
The letter continues: “The clinical literature is clear: individuals with Dark Triad profiles, when confronted with situations they cannot control or escape, do not recalibrate. They escalate. The psychological imperative to relieve narcissistic collapse overrides strategic calculation, concern for consequences, and ordinary self-restraint. Rage surges to domination. Impulsivity overrides caution. The urgent need to extinguish psychological pain eclipses every other consideration. We are watching this dynamic unfold in real time.”
As evidence, the letter points out: “The President’s recent public communications have been, by any normal standard of political discourse, alarming. His posts demanding that Iran ‘open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards’ and his threat to bomb Iran ‘back to the stone ages,’ adding that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,’ are not the rhetoric of calculated geopolitical pressure. They are the expressions of a man in profound psychological distress who is reaching for the most extreme retaliatory threats available to him.” The letter adds that “orders are being issued without adequate deliberation, without Congressional authorization, and in a context in which the President’s judgment is, by every visible measure, severely compromised.”
Three actions are urged in the letter. First, Congress must immediately retake its Constitutional authority over war.” Second, Congress must create a circuit breaker to prevent catastrophe such as the use of nuclear weapons. For this a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders must consult with senior administration officials including the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State, and the Director of National Intelligence. The letter states: “Those officials have their own constitutional and statutory obligations. Congress should insist on those obligations and provide a forum in which they can be exercised.” The third action urged in the letter is that “Congress should formally initiate consultation with the Vice President and Cabinet regarding the President’s fitness for office under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.”
The mental health professionals are not calling for the President’s immediate removal, but rather for making the constitutional contingency available, rather than relying on “a political improvisation.”
In conclusion the letter states, “The psychological conditions driving the President’s decisions will not improve under pressure—they will worsen. We urge you to act without delay. The Constitution gives you the tools. Your oath of office assigns you the responsibility.” Signers to the letter include, James Gilligan, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine; Prudence L. Gourguechon, MD, Former President, American Psychoanalytic Association; and Bandy X. Lee, MD, President, World Mental Health Coalition.
