‘Trump’s Death Spiral is Pulling Us into a Fascism Like the World has Never Seen’

Pulling Ourselves Out May be a Spiritual Question

Thom Hartmann’s title could not be better put: he reads and understands my Substack articles, as I read and appreciate his. We both strive to “connect the dots” to understand problems profoundly, so that we can solve them effectively. Superficial explanations and quick fixes have proven to be at best temporary, if not backfired in an existential situation.

This is why I have said that fascism should not be considered a political ideology but “mental pathology in politics.” This is what the recent, economic Armageddon is about, as we have suffered through the biggest stock market crash since September 11, 2001, entirely self-inflicted, under the fantasy that this will bring “Liberation Day.” The meaning of “liberation” here is one person’s need no longer to be tethered to reality.

That is only in the economic domain, and only the beginning. His war with reality will accelerate and expand, and will not stop until we truly reach Armageddon.

While many are absorbed in the Signalgate, egg prices, and the catastrophic Trump/Musk/MAGA dismantling of both the American government and American democracy, as serious as they are, what concerns me is the growing discourse on “World War III.” Sweden is inspecting and renovating tens of thousands of bunkers, warning of “nuclear Armageddon.” The European Union has reportedly warned its 27 countries and 450 million people to prepare for World War III. Germany launches its first permanent foreign deployment since World War II—on Vladimir Putin’s doorstep. And then there is the worsening threat that Iran’s nuclear program poses.

We cannot forget what initially instigated the current threats of nuclear war: the first Trump administration’s “first nuclear strike” policies, the pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, and the emboldening of global aggressors with nuclear power, such as Russia and Israel—far before any attack.

Hartmann appropriately brought up the phrase, “Death Spiral,” in our interview. Time did not allow me to elaborate on the solutions, but many know by now of my emphasis on self-care. This is not an idle suggestion. Indeed, I have always emphasized to my medical and law students: “When in an emergency, first check your own pulse.” The more dire the situation, the more we must accurately assess our psychological strength and cultivate our spiritual awareness, for the exigencies may even call for a deus ex machina.

This is why a mental health understanding is a critical starting point. It is not only because we are dealing with a public mental health crisis, but in all human affairs—especially where there is pathology—we need the foundation for accurate understanding. It would be a mistake to consider, for example, the recent tariff war as a primarily economic problem; it is primarily, if not purely, a psychological one.

Many believe that the president wants “to restore manufacturing to the U.S.” but is merely “stupid, wrong, [and] ignorant trade-wise.” Practically no one is saying:

His compulsive drive to push sabotaging policies—contrary to the counsel of everyone else—is a desperate effort to dispel his doubts of being mentally incompetent or inferior—even if he needs to destroy the country and the world in order to prove that he is not so.

This kind of behavior has its roots in childhood, as an African proverb describes:

The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.

“The village” was of course his family home, but as in all who show signs of developmental arrest, the rage has carried over, in this case to the global “village” of the most powerful nation in the world if not the globe itself. Left to his own devices, he will inevitably be destructive, and bringing the country to bankruptcy or destroying the U.S. dollar will not be the end—and it will not be confined to the economy.

Indeed, these undertakings have nothing to do with economics, manufacturing, or even the plight of the workers he exploited to get himself to a position of power, through predatory manipulations. That he would have no remorse or conscience regarding the destruction he has wrought is a given. If he had this capacity, he would not engage in the destruction in the first place.

This is why a correct understanding of the problem is crucial, and it cannot leave out mental health. Fascism expertise comes closest, but the political emphasis leaves out the psychological origins, and historians by definition are not interventionists. Instead, a problem of existential magnitude and planetary threat requires a collaboration of all disciplines, with mental health at the top, in my modest analysis. Especially psychiatrists should not sidestep a difficult problem with narrow, technical excuses, when life-threatening dangers and preservation of life are precisely the issues for which we are trained first responders.

Admittedly, applying the knowledge and principles we already have to a novel setting requires some adjustment. However, we can see that it certainly has a better chance than leaving it to those who are familiar with the setting but do not have the knowledge and principles that are applicable to the crisis at hand. Whether we choose to heed this recognition is ultimately a spiritual question, for the following reasons:

1. “The devill … the prowde spirite … cannot endure to be mocked” (Thomas More), and will we recognize that the Trump Contagion of not wishing to expose its greatest shame—mental unfitness and inadequacy—has infected us all?

2. Will we rise above our own pride and resistance, in wishing to believe that we all know as much as the experts when it comes to matters of mental health?

3. Will we step up and do what is necessary, when our very survival as a species is at stake?

4. Will the American Psychiatric Association (APA) apologize for its profit-driven collusion with the Trump administration, when it ingrained in the public its insignificant “Goldwater rule”—which is automatically overridden in cases of danger to public health and to human life? Will it embrace its primary responsibilities, as dictated in the core tenets of medical ethics and the Geneva Declaration?

5. Will the media acknowledge that they were misled, when the New York Times and others allowed the APA to gaslight them into blacking out the most relevant experts in the midst of a mental health crisis, which is what has led to our current, dystopian, upside-down world of unreality and untruth?

The magnitude of the collective shift in consciousness that is now necessary is the reason I call this an existential, quintessential, spiritual question.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee is holding weekly live sessions on:

“A Curriculum on One World or None”

The next session will be this Friday, April 18, 2025, 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 who became known to the public through her 2017 Yale conference and book that emphasized the importance of fit leadership. In 2019, she organized a major National Press Club Conference on the theme of, “The Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” In 2024, she followed up with another major Conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” She published another book on fit leadership (now privately expanded), in addition to a volume on how unfitness in a leader spreads and two critical statements on fit leadership. Dr. Lee warned that journalists and intellectuals are the first to be suppressed in times of unfit leadership, and it is happening here; she continues, however, to be interviewed or covered abroad, such as in France, Germany, Norway, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and Canada (with articles in Turkish, Czech and Polish). Dr. Lee authored the internationally-acclaimed textbook, Violence; over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters; and 17 scholarly books and journal special issues, in addition to over 300 opinion editorials. She is currently developing a new curriculum of public education on “One World or None.”