‘Meet the Vapid Press,’ Part 2

Serious Dangerous Mental Problems are Overlooked, while Cognitive Problems are Overplayed

Last Sunday, just before “Meet the Press” debuted with a new host, Kristen Welker, I published, “Meet the Vapid Press,” under the encouragement of a colleague who follows the major Sunday morning show that NBC touts as, “the longest running program in television history.”  

Now let me add further to how “vapid”, perhaps even dangerous, our so-called corporate mainstream press has become, as this special episode of “Meet the Press” exemplifies.  I am not approaching this from a political or journalistic perspective but from a societal mental health and safety standpoint.  Those in my profession are obligated to share whatever knowledge we can to protect the public’s health and wellbeing, whenever there are major issues on which our educational background and expertise can offer significant insight.  Our times have had more than their share.

During the interview with Welker, Donald Trump proclaimed how much he favors tests for “mental competence.”  Specifically, he said: “I frankly think testing would be a good thing.  A lot of people say it’s unconstitutional to do it.  But I would be for testing, to test to make sure everything’s fine.”  Trump, of course, had in mind Joe Biden: “I don’t think Biden’s too old.  But I think he’s incompetent, and that’s a bigger problem.”

The even bigger problem—quite possibly the greatest threat to humankind—is not Biden’s competence but Trump’s.  There are standard tests for what is known as “mental competence,” and one was indeed performed on Donald Trump, by a panel of some of the top mental health experts in the United States.  It was administered using standard procedure, based on the best data an evaluator could have—reports of associates and coworkers of his actual performance, under sworn testimony—at the repeated requests of the public (competence, or fitness, tests are usually requested by employers, and a president’s employers are the people).

What Trump believes he passed—a ten-minute cognitive screen by Emergency Physician Ronny Jackson, who is neither trained nor qualified to perform a fitness test—was not a fitness test.  It was not even a screen sufficient to rule out dementia (hospitalized patients with full-blown dementia can still pass it).

An actual fitness test, which the panel of top experts performed, Donald Trump did not pass; indeed, he failed every category!  Furthermore, one could be incompetent for multiple reasons, and the most dangerously cause of incompetence is not dementia, but a drive to harm not just the public but the nation, as for example in pathological narcissism or sociopathy.

Whether a person with the awesome powers of the American presidency might be psychiatrically dangerous should be of foremost concern.  Think not only of the authority of a commander-in-chief who always has the nuclear football by his side, but also of a person in charge of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations that could erupt into World War III, as well as the person most responsible for responding to pandemics and climate breakdown.

As I continue to emphasize, I and my colleagues were immediately concerned, in 2017, when Donald Trump entered the White House with just such authority.  Having become the most powerful person in the world, he had also become the most dangerous person in the world.  This is why we immediately organized a conference at Yale School of Medicine, entitling it: “Does Professional Responsibility Include a Duty to Warn?”  Out of this conference came our instant New York Times bestselling public-service book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.  This resulted not only in many media requests but over fifty members of the U.S. Congress asking to meet privately with us, leading to intense discussions about ways to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.  These plans were foiled when the American Psychiatric Association aggressively stepped in, under the “leadership” of Jeffrey Lieberman, who has now been removed from his Columbia chairmanship in disgrace.

Last Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Welker passed up a major opportunity to finally directly ask Trump about his “mental health.”  Not only did Trump himself open the door by calling for “tests” to determine Biden’s competence.  Welker should have prepared simply to ask Trump about the topic herself.  She could have asked about other things he has said, including: “I’m a very stable genius”; “I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test, and aced it!” (referring to Jackson’s sham, if not fraudulent, “test”); and, more recently, “I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch and Sons, Biden, Wall Street Journal heads, to acuity tests!”  Trump even followed up: “I will name the place and the test, and it will be a tough one.  Nobody will come even close to me!”  All this, of course, only further confirms the correctness of results of the true competence test that the mental health expert panel performed.

What an opportunity Welker missed!  Or did she not go there on purpose, fearing even to mention what has been for a very long time the unspoken mental unfitness elephant in the room?  It is what we psychiatrists and mental health professionals have been raising over and over, without never ever getting invited to appear on any of the major broadcast programs to discuss, including on “Meet the Press”—even as the problem has ballooned beyond control….

We have asked ourselves from the beginning what are we to do, when as mental health professionals, we conclude that the person entrusted with the awesome powers of the U.S. presidency may have very serious mental health impairments that endanger us all.  That was why we held our first conference at my institution shortly after Donald Trump became president and for all that has followed.  Last month, I wrote an article about this, entitled, “Mental Tests for Presidents.”  I hope that the media will learn to inform Americans, in a timely and responsible fashion, what they need to know and should be very concerned about—regardless of the discomfort that may come with discussing the most crucial issues.  Sometimes, it could be a matter of life or death.