As the Senate prepares to try him again, the mental health pandemic he unleashed rages on
By
Bandy X. Lee
The Trump presidency may be over, but Donald Trump’s dangers continue. This is because we have yet to contain the number one emergency, which is the spread of mental pathology.
Without addressing
this mental health
pandemic, even the Biden administration’s admirable efforts to
contain the viral pandemic may meet with obstacles. Similarly,
without conviction and
prosecution, which is the first step to containing this mental
health pandemic, hopes for “reconciliation” and “unity” may also be for naught.
Mental health
professionals knew from the
start that Donald Trump had the psychological makeup to become
very dangerous with presidential powers. Following our 2017 assessment, I and
thousands of my colleagues at the World Mental
Health Coalition issued more than 300
pages of letters, petitions, and statements asserting that
Donald Trump’s dangers would spread and erupt.
In March 2020, we
issued a “Prescription for
Survival,” stating that the president’s removal through the 25th
Amendment, impeachment, or resignation—or at least removal of influence—was
essential to avoiding widespread unnecessary
deaths.
Trump uses words
and directly incites violence. Research on violence shows that
rhetoric can be more efficient than specific orders or direct assaults in
causing epidemics of violence.
A failure to contain
led to a most dramatic demonstration of
dangers on Jan. 6, but it was long in coming. Over the
summer of 2020, I wrote a new public-service book, Profile of a
Nation, to warn that, “he is truly someone who would do
anything,… no matter how destructive, to stay in power.”
Indeed, the near-massacre of
lawmakers he caused at the Capitol, save for a few heroes,
proves how close he came to causing the kind of chaos that may have permitted
him to remain.
As we did with
the Mueller report, his
recent phone call with Georgia’s
secretary of state, and his “Save America” rally speech,
mental health professionals can explain how Donald Trump uses words and directly incites
violence.
Research on violence
shows that rhetoric can be more efficient than specific orders or direct
assaults in causing epidemics of
violence.
The ideal course would
have been swift impeachment and conviction. Impeachment happening a week
after the actual incident was already a poor precedent, prompting us to write to the
speaker of the House: we would not allow a serial killer to be
on the loose with bombs, ammunition, and assault rifles for days—and yet we
permitted a serial mass
killer, by the order of hundreds of thousands, for weeks with access
to nuclear weapons capable of destroying all civilization.
We urged clear and
speedy actions, given that each day of delay had an adverse effect on the
population’s demoralization
and trauma without justice, and on Trump enablers’
opportunities to subvert the momentum for
impeachment.
Impeachment Backfire
As we know from past
experience, tepid
impeachment proceedings could even backfire and boost Donald
Trump’s standing. As we have repeatedly emphasized, once with over 800 mental
health professional signatories, even the most impeccable political
calculations, without consideration of psychological factors in his case, would
likely also fail politically.
Given a recalcitrant
Senate, psychological influences are especially critical. Some
of this might have been mobilized to advantage had impeachment occurred the day
after violent insurrection and sedition, and conviction as soon as the
following day, with amplification of public outcry if the Senate refused.
Since this did not
happen, the next best course would be to have a complete trial with as much
evidence and testimonies as possible, including those of Capitol police
officers who were injured during the incident, to maximize
pressure on the Senate to convict.
More High Crimes
Additional articles of
impeachment would also be helpful, including his role in the soon-to-be half-million
Americans who perished from the pandemic; the economic misery
while he and his cronies profited;
the human rights abuses as he kidnapped and placed children in
concentration camps; and the aid and comfort he gave to neo-Nazi
and white
supremacist terrorist groups throughout his presidency, to
compose an “encyclopedia of
articles” more commensurate with reality that we recommended since
the first impeachment.
Unless conviction
promptly removes former
presidential privileges and sets restrictions on future
campaigns for political office, Donald Trump will likely use the acquittal to
claim that he is innocent of all charges.
He will claim that the
second impeachment was another “hoax” intended
to victimize him, using it to discredit all subsequent indictments and
prosecutions.
Back on the Stump
He will resume holding
rallies, continually pushing the narrative that he was the real victor in
2020, threatening further social and political divisions. He will blame
the poor state of the country he created on the Biden administration, just as
easily as he claimed credit for the long-term
benefits that the Obama administration’s policies generated, as
he aims to return to power as the savior who will “make America great
again.”
As long as positive
reinforcement through a lack of accountability persists, he will not stop.
A failure to convict
will, furthermore, have a devastating effect on the public’s mental
health. The country is already traumatized from
four years of normalizing, legitimizing, and even glorifying deadly
criminality, abusive behavior, and severe pathology.
Members of Congress
who experienced normal emotional
distress as happens after a life-threatening event will not be
able to have closure, as will the American people after the violation and
desecration of their seat of government.
Unhealthy Bonds
A failure to convict
will continue to entrap those who support
him, whose unhealthy
emotional bonds prevent them from seeing the damage that is
being done to their personhood, livelihood, health, and even lives. It is
a disservice to collude with their psychological defenses against the pain of
disappointment, further entrenching them in potential future trauma upon
learning the truth.
Clear boundaries need
to be set that a leader should not abuse, let alone kill, the people he has
sworn to serve.
The first step to
healing a massive mental health pandemic is to convict, set limits, return to
reality, and restore the standards of lawfulness, order, and safety. We
should not continue to permit a dangerously
unfit person who held high office to spread unmitigated
violence, trauma, and mental pathology. Mental health professionals who
routinely manage dangerous personalities have vital knowledge to
contribute to society and should be consulted.