Trump’s mental state a ‘danger to us all’, warns leading forensic psychiatrist

Donald Trump is displaying personality traits linked to a “psychological disability” that poses a “danger to us all”, a leading forensic psychiatrist has claimed.

Mr Trump’s trademark Twitter tirades, boasts about sexual assault and “attraction to violence and weapons” raise serious questions about the US President’s mental fitness for office, said Bandy X Lee, an internationally recognised expert on violence at Yale School of Medicine.

She claimed Mr Trump’s mental state brought into question his ability to “think rationally, to take in needed information or advice, to weigh consequences and to make sound, logical decisions based on reality”.

Critics of the President have long called out what they see as personality deficiencies that make him unfit to occupy the Oval Office.

Rumours swirled on social media about the President’s mental health this week after he appeared to slur during a major address on the status of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The White House dismissed as “ridiculous” claims that the President was suffering from an unknown health problem after he mispronounced “states” during Wednesday’s televised announcement.

But, writing for NBC News, Ms Lee warned that the questions about Mr Trump’s fitness for office run much deeper than slurred words.

She wrote: “It does not take a mental health professional to see that a person of Trump's impairments, in the office of the presidency, is a danger to us all.

“What mental health experts can offer is affirmation that these signs are real, that they may be worse than the public suspects, and that the patterns indicate the need for an urgent evaluation.”

Ms Lee also claimed the on-going investigation into links between Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia would leave the President feeling “increasingly walled in”, adding that as a result, “his mental stability is likely to suffer and hence also public safety”.

“Mental impairment and criminal-mindedness are not mutually exclusive; not only can they happen at the same time, when combined, these two characteristics become particularly dangerous,” she said.

“Trump has shown marked signs of impairment and psychological disability under ordinary circumstances, hardly able to cope with basic criticism or unflattering news.”

It comes as a prominent psychologist criticised Mr Trump for what she said were more than 1,600 “lies” in his first 11 months in office, describing them as a “flood of deceit”.

Writing in the Washington Post, Bella DePaulo said: “By telling so many lies, and so many that are mean-spirited, Trump is violating some of the most fundamental norms of human social interaction and human decency.”

Last month the co-author of Mr Trump’s memoir The Art of the Deal claimed White House aides were “terrified” about the President’s mental health.

Tony Schwartz, a fierce critic of the 71-year-old since he took office in January, suggested Mr Trump was “deeply mentally ill” and “no longer connected to reality”.