At a July 8 NATO press conference, President Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic of Japan had shot 111 missiles at aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.
During that same press conference our president repeatedly referred to Ukraine President Zelensky as President Putin. These were some of the more recent erratic comments by Trump that prompted a growing concern about his mental health, leading some to suggest that the time has come to invoke section 4 of the 25th Amendment and remove him from office.
Mental health professionals and critics argue that the increasing incoherence and loss of impulse control exhibited by our president are signs of potential degeneration. Verbal missteps and rambling monologues have fueled ongoing debates. While some analysts attribute the changes to a long-standing, unique, rhetorical style that resonates with his base, experts in psychology and medicine have raised alarms over what they view as a clear deterioration in language skills, overall coherence, and exhibition of attention deficit disorder.
More than 70,000 mental health professionals signed petitions and open letters organized by groups like “Duty to Warn” warning about Donald Trump’s psychological fitness and potential danger. This movement has run parallel to smaller, focused statements by senior medical experts submitting formal warnings to Congress. A group of 30 senior doctors specializing in mental health entered a letter into the Congressional Record on April 30 of this year, where they argue that the president is mentally unfit, showing signs of cognitive decline and should be removed from office. And, as far back as 2017, Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist, violence expert and president of the World Mental Health Coalition, edited a book containing essays by 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals describing the “clear and present danger” that President Trump’s mental health poses to the “nation and individual well being.”
They generally observed a distinct shift from concise, logical speech to rambling tangential digressions, including a linguistic and cognitive decline indicating various exhibitions aligned with a variety of forms of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
While for many invoking the 25th Amendment appears to be a rational—albeit political—resolution of this fairly well documented problem, its application is neither simple nor universally endorsed. Section 4 of the Amendment stipulates that if the Vice President and a majority of the President’s cabinet believe the president is physically or mentally unfit to do their job, they can inform Congress in writing, immediately making the V.P. the acting president.
If the president disagrees, they can attempt to take their power back, but Congress has the final say. Given the current composition of Trump’s cabinet, this maneuver does not appear viable. In fact, it has never been used successfully. Over the years, numerous resolutions have been introduced to mandate a procedure for medically and psychiatrically evaluating a president who is suspected of being unfit to perform their duties. None of these attempts have been successful.
In general, psychologists and mental health professionals remain deeply divided over Donald Trump. While many experts point to traits aligning with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and some have organized petitions arguing that his behavior poses a threat, other prominent professionals vehemently disagree.
They contend that evaluating public figures from afar violates the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater rule,” a guideline enjoining psychiatrists from professionally diagnosing someone they have not personally evaluated. They contend that political action should be addressed through the ballot box rather than through psychiatric diagnoses.
