Yale psychiatrist warned Congress that Trump is 'going to unravel'

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In early December, Yale psychiatry professor Brandy X. Lee spent two days with more than a dozen members of Congress, briefing them on President Trump's recent behavior, Politico reported Wednesday night. All of the lawmakers were Democrats except for one unidentified Republican senator. Lee said she told the members of Congress that Trump is "going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs."

Trump's taunting tweet about having a bigger nuclear button than North Korea's Kim Jong Un has revived discussion in Congress about removing Trump using the 25th Amendment, Politico reported, as well as the lack of a mechanism to assess Trump's mental state. "Their level of concern about the president's dangerousness was surprisingly high," Lee told Politico. She listed some of her own concerns, like Trump "going back to conspiracy theories, denying things he has admitted before, his being drawn to violent videos," adding: "We feel that the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the presidency."

The 25th Amendment allows for presidents to be removed from office if the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet deem him unfit for office. Lee is scheduled to address Trump's wellness later this month at a meeting hosted by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and a town hall with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who proposed a bill that would set up a commission to evaluate a president's fitness for office.

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At The Atlantic, James Hamblin argues for some such mechanism, especially given a president's nuclear powers, pointing to alarming signs of Trump's possible neurological degeneration. "A president could be actively hallucinating, threatening to launch a nuclear attack based on intelligence he had just obtained from David Bowie, and the medical community could be relegated to speculation from afar," he notes. You can read more about his proposal at The Atlantic.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.