‘Four-Star Generals Mark Milley and John Kelly Failed Their Nation when It Really Mattered’

The Dangers of Donald Trump Required Early Containment; Could They Have Done More?

The above is not my quote, but that of a friend of the World Mental Health Coalition, who used his contact to invite General Mark Milley to our major National Press Club conference but did not succeed.  This friend knows that I am of a different opinion—that I am exceedingly grateful to both generals for containing Donald Trump when he easily could have ended human civilization—but this friend, whom I will keep anonymous for now, has been insistent that I share his perspective.

Hence, here it is:

It has taken two of the most decorated and accomplished Four-Star Generals of our time much too long to speak up.  General John Kelly is much in the news of late for his extensive New York Times interview finally acknowledging Trump is a “fascist” who lamented that “his Generals” were not loyal to him as were Hitler’s.  But Kelly cannot be excused for keeping things to himself all these years.  In fact, the public learned two years ago, five long years after psychiatrists and mental health professionals had begun to repeatedly and loudly try to warn the nation, that indeed way back in 2017 when he was Trump’s Chief of Staff in the White House, Kelly had “secretly” bought their bestselling book that made Dr. Bandy Lee nationally known.  He was using it as his “owner’s manual” for how to restrain a “dangerous and unfit” Commander-in-Chief.  But now it is 2024, so where has Kelly been all these years when it comes to acting on what he knew and to making his concerns known to the American public.

Similarly with General Mark Milley.  All these years, he had not even read the book by psychiatrists and mental health professionals or known about all the efforts they were taking, though he was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon while his colleague, General Kelly, was “secretly” using their book to try to prevent President Trump from bringing about catastrophe, even from using nuclear weapons.  Dr. Lee learned this about General Milley only recently when I told her about the chance I had to speak with Milley about it and then handed him a copy of their book.  But now it is 2024, so where has Milley been all these years when it comes to acting on what he knew and to making his concerns properly known to the American public?

Trump Contagion, the title of a book Dr. Lee published last month, and The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the title of the book released just a few weeks ago at a major conference they held at the National Press Club, could have and should have been properly assessed and dealt with many years ago when these two most involved, most senior, and most responsible Generals were in critical positions and still on duty, one at the White House and the other at the Pentagon.  They both had responsibilities one way or another to advocate early diagnosis and treatment of their boss’s mental impairments—which should have involved psychiatrists’ consultation and recommendations at the time when it really mattered for a mandated psychiatric examination or invocation of the 25th Amendment.  But they both used one excuse after another all these years to shun their responsibilities and to coverup their failures.

And, by the way, both of these Generals were repeatedly invited to participate in any way they chose in the unprecedented major conference with 19 expert panelists including a retired Brigadier General and retired Rear Admiral a month ago on September 27—but both of them once again gave one excuse or another not to do what they should have done long ago.

While I would agree that they could have done more, and if done long ago would have made all the difference, I would rather fault the American Psychiatric Association (APA).  Although little noticed at the time, it knowingly made a very authoritarian move—that is, to deprive the public of the most relevant expertise at a time of greatest need—through a trope of “the Goldwater rule.”  By elevating a previously insignificant “rule” (actually, just a guideline) to an absolute prohibition that superseded even our obligations to society, the APA facilitated, more than any other factor, the spread of authoritarianism and all the subsequent, predictable calamities that followed.

Medical professionals know that early intervention and prevention are critically important for avoiding vast suffering from disease.  By calling our public educational efforts to be “unethical” without basis, and going further to shut out our voices with the media, the APA created an extra barrier for accessing the specialized knowledge that the public could have used to protect itself. Above all, it would not have taken almost eight years for the rest of the world to catch up with mental health experts, after much devastation, much suffering, and the risk still of far greater dangers to come.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee will hold a live session on:

“Containing Trump Contagion –
Healing Our Collective Mental Health”

Tomorrow, October 25, 2024, at 12 noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT on Zoom.  A paid subscription is required to receive a link the morning before.  Thank you!

Dr. Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist and an expert on violence who became known to the public with her 2017 book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.  She recently organized a major National Press Club Conference on the theme of, “The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”—of which the summary video is here.  We have also successfully published our new book, The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 40 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Warn Anew. This was all made possible because of the generosity of the public—and we now ask for your help once more to reach millions with our vital message from the Conference, in these critical moments before a critical election!