A Danger to Others
There is No Ambiguity: Donald Trump Must be Stopped
On Good Friday, Donald Trump posted a video that featured an image of Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck. It is yet another glimpse into the former president’s dangerous state of mind that reflects an overwhelming penchant for darkness and violence. Furthermore, he has a vast national audience that responds fervently—if not literally—to his inflammatory rhetoric and calls for violence.
Indeed, messages have poured into my Inbox, and the public is absolutely right:
Dear Bandy,
Why isn't Donald Trump sectioned against his will? Frank Bruno the famous [U.K.] boxer was sectioned against his will when he was ill.
Not only that, British psychiatrists had once apparently geared up to section George W. Bush for calling for the Iraq War, while he was president and visiting the U.K. Consider the hundreds of thousands of lives that might have been saved, not to mention a safer world, had that seemingly dramatic but medically correct action been taken.
Currently, Donald Trump is not even president—not that a president is above mental health laws, just like any law—and even more psychologically dangerous than Bush ever was. Yet, the medically correct action is not being taken. That neither the law nor medical standards of psychiatric care can function for Trump makes him in fact more dangerous, not less.
Let us examine just a few examples of his recent dangerous rhetoric. Donald Trump warned that if he lost the 2024 election, there would be a “bloodbath”. He also said some undocumented migrants were “not people” and “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. He said: “We will root out the … vermin within the confines of our country.” He quoted Vladimir Putin in attacking Joe Biden as a “threat to democracy” and called Jewish Americans who vote Democratic as hating Israel and “their religion.” He raised the possibility of “bedlam” for his legal challenges and “death [and] destruction” for the Manhattan district attorney. Dangerous rhetoric—“words”—can be deadlier than “sticks and stones” (or physical violence).
In terms of imminence, this is a moment much like when Donald Trump taunted: “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than [Kim Jong-un’s].” At the time, we later learned, John Kelly made use of our book as an “owner’s manual” and contained the imminent dangers of the then-president. This was admirable, but it still fell short of a proper psychiatric intervention against dangerousness for reasons of mental defect. True, we have averted nuclear annihilation, but imagine how many more millions of lives around the globe might have been saved, had a proper intervention been taken at that time. Now, we have no such persons as Kelly around him, and his dangerousness for reasons of mental defect is actually worse.
And when we are speaking of Donald Trump, we are speaking of an individual who has already demonstrated violence in ways too innumerable to list here, as well as having caused, by reason of mental defect, more American deaths than the Civil War, or all subsequent American wars combined, including World War I in World War II.
All 50 U.S. states have provisions for an emergency psychiatric hold, which permits involuntary admission to a secure facility until a psychiatric examination can be performed. In Florida, this is called a Baker Act proceeding. The state’s Baker Act law is a means of providing individuals with emergency services and temporary detention for up to 72 hours for mental health examination, pursuant to Florida Statute Chapter 394.
To be eligible for an involuntary examination under the Baker Act, an individual must meet the following criteria:
1. There is reason to believe that he or she is mentally ill and because of his or her mental illness, the person has refused voluntary examination.
2. The person is unable to determine for himself or herself whether examination is necessary and without care or treatment, the person is likely to suffer from neglect or refuse to care for himself or herself and such refusal could pose a threat of harm to his or her wellbeing.
3. There is a substantial likelihood that without care or treatment, the person will cause serious bodily harm to himself, herself, or others in the near future, as evidenced by recent behavior.
Any of the following may file for an emergency hold:
A. A physician, clinical psychologist, psychiatric nurse, licensed clinical social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, or licensed metal heath counselor may execute a certificate stating that he or she has observed behavior that meets the Baker Act criteria in the past 48 hours.
B. A law enforcement officer may transport an individual to a facility for examination if there is reason to believe that the individual's behavior meets statutory guidelines for involuntary examination.
C. Any individual willing to swear in a Petition for Involuntary Examination that one has personally witnessed an individual causing harm to themselves or others. An “ex parte” Petition for an Involuntary Examination can be completed at the clerk's office. The term “ex parte” means that the court will consider the petition without first serving it on the person sought to be Baker Acted. However, the Court may upon review of the ex parte Petition elect to schedule a subsequent hearing and give notice to the person sought to be Baker Acted.
Donald Trump is a classic candidate for a physician’s emergency certificate for involuntary examination. He abundantly meets all criteria. Though called differently in different states, it is a national standard, practiced by physicians and mental health professionals every day in every region. Perhaps it is time that we apply this same standard for the safety of all society, rather than placing one individual above all laws, including natural law (governing mental health and disease). After all, this is the very reason for which I and my colleagues held our “Duty to Warn” Conference at Yale; published our 2017 public-service book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump; held our 2019 major National Press Club conference, “Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership”; assembled a panel of top mental health experts to perform a mental fitness exam, finding him to be unfit for any job, let alone president; issued our 2020 Prescription for Survival to reduce the number of deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic; put on the record one hundred senior mental health professionals to warn that he should not even be a candidate for the presidency; and issued our 2021 Emergency Statement that he should be immediately removed from office following his incitement of a violent insurrection. We started from a handful of mental health experts assembling at Yale School of Medicine to thousands of professionals from all over the world joining the World Mental Health Coalition. We could not be more convinced in our medical consensus, which has not changed; all we need now is law enforcement with the courage to carry it out.
This is exactly right, Bandy… Thank you so much for returning to the concept of an involuntary hold, the need for which members of the World Mental Health Coalition predicted as early as 2017.
The image of a bound and gagged Biden comes from the mind of a childish man who needs to imagine himself as having unlimited power. It is a revenge fantasy intended to inflate the threatened and fragile self-esteem of TFG whose mind has been organized around such fantasies since he was a child. Dr. Justin Frank, in his 2017 book, Trump On The Couch, wrote that as a 13 year old, Donald hid large knives in his bedroom. When this was discovered, his father decided to send him to a military style boarding school to contain and restrain him. The family didn't feel safe.
The nation has been feeling unsafe for the last eight years, and in 2020 we also kicked him out of the "house." The difference is, now Donald has an army of willing executioners, people who participate in his revenge fantasies and have shown, as on 1/6, a willingness to enact the violence he imagines. His fantasies are realized by their violent behavior but at his direction. In thinly veiled verbal and graphic messages he tells them when to "stand back, and standby," and when to act because "It'll be wild." And therefore, he is the one who must be legally "bound and gagged."
Donald Trump is a danger to others and we have a right to be protected from the violence he promotes. An involuntary hold and a psychiatric examination is the protocol needed when anyone displays threatening behavior towards individuals or the community at large. That's the difference between democracies and dictatorships. Ruth Ben Ghiat, an expert on authoritarians, describes how in a dictatorship it's lawlessness that rules. In a democracy it is the lawful who are in charge. We must apply the law, like good parents setting limits, in order to assert our democratic right to have lawfulness prevail in the United States. Our hesitation further empowers Donald Trump's fantasies of unlimited power. It confirms to him and to his followers that HE has the power, not the democratic society he is threatening, symbolized by a bound and helpless President Biden. It is the law that must constrain him, to be followed up with legal consequences for not obeying the law. As a society we must be consistent, and it is consistent with our own state laws that someone who poses a danger to himself or others be held involuntarily and examined by mental health experts to see whether further containment is required.
I appreciate Nicolle Wallace on Deadline WH (MSNBC) who’s one of the most vocal ‘Duty to Warn’ journalists on TV. One afternoon last week, at the end of a segment she said and I think most people missed it, “I feel like I need a Psychiatrist” to explain … Media prioritizes lawyers who act as mental health experts. I’ve removed myself from social media because it contributes to this toxic atmosphere but also I can’t morally or ethically support platforms that are exploiting the public while enriching themselves and then supporting the right. That said, if you use social media maybe you follow well meaning journalists like NW and reach her/them that way. I’m sure it’s been done. I feel so much despair. In the same week former conservative Judge Luttig stated “we are careening” towards a “disaster”. He and Liz Cheney have both made similar statements about the Supreme Court. Before anyone advises me to take a break, I have but now is not the time. I am involved in political activities that are working towards the same goal. And, appropriately I know when and where to despair. Mostly I navigate hope, activism, and persuasion to message the importance of getting involved. ALL HANDS ON DECK is not hyperbole. Thanks for your persistence Dr. Lee.