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Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee says senators accepted her warning but refused to act.
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Physicians warn that Trump’s impaired judgment and bouts of rage could culminate in an order for nuclear devastation. By the time the public knew, the missiles could already be airborne.
“We first have to remove the president from his access to dangerous weapons, and then to remove his war powers…”— Dr. Bandy X. Lee, forensic psychiatrist, emergency psychiatric meeting, April 10, 2026.
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Photo credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images.
President Donald Trump broadcasts AI annihilation while depicting the White House beneath a Golden Dome. Trump signals that, at any moment, he alone can authorize U.S. nuclear use capable of killing millions. Trump depends on subordinates to execute presidential orders; personal allegiance can make resistance to abuse seem like betrayal.
Trump can order nuclear strikes capable of incinerating cities without first obtaining congressional approval. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine cannot veto a lawful nuclear launch order. U.S. Strategic Command must execute that order, so Congress cannot rely on Hegseth or Caine to stop the attack.
Republican senators shield Trump from conviction and removal, endangering countless lives through willful dereliction of duty.
A nuclear exchange could burn whole neighborhoods while destroying the hospitals needed to treat survivors. Soot from burning cities could block sunlight and devastate harvests far beyond the countries fighting. Rutgers climate scientist Lili Xia calculated that famine after full-scale U.S.–Russia nuclear war could kill more than five billion people. Senators who accept Dr. Bandy X. Lee’s warning yet refuse to pursue removal leave Trump able to initiate a war that could kill most of humanity.
President Donald Trump told Republican convention attendees in Dallas to raise their right hands on September 10, 2026. He then led the Republican convention audience in a pledge naming himself “the greatest president in the history of the United States.” The Republican convention audience repeated a pledge addressed to Trump rather than to the Constitution, the United States, or the presidency.
Trump then made voting part of the pledge. “I don’t care if I’m registered or not,” Trump said. He added that he would “try and cheat like hell like they do.” Then Trump told attendees to bring relatives and friends to vote on or before November 3, 2026.
During the same remarks, Trump again accused Democrats of cheating in elections. Washington Post reporters described Trump’s election-fraud accusations as part of his years-long baseless claims that widespread voter fraud benefits Democrats. Trump portrays political opponents as criminals while depicting catastrophic force as an extension of his personal authority.
Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself at a Space Force console on September 6. Trump sat against a backdrop of two fireballs resembling mushroom clouds near Earth. Other AI scenes Trump posted depicted attacks on Iran and a robotic military force.
On June 14, 2026, Trump turned eighty. The White House confirmed chronic venous insufficiency, while visible swelling and makeup-covered bruises have intensified scrutiny of his health. Trump posted the Golden Dome image on May 22, 2026. By presenting mass death as entertainment, Trump invites acceptance of destruction the president has a duty to prevent. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. James L. Knoll IV describes mass killers who embrace death while pursuing revenge and self-glorification.
Hitler issued the Nero Decree on March 19, 1945, ordering the destruction of Germany’s transport, communications, industrial facilities, and supply depots. According to Speer’s account, Hitler answered his protest by declaring that Germans had proved weaker and deserved no provisions for survival. Six weeks later, Hitler killed himself in the bunker he had converted into the architecture of his final conviction. Speer obstructed the decree and helped preserve Germany’s remaining infrastructure. Trump still commands an administration without a Speer; Stephen Miller converts presidential directives into policy and enforcement.
Congress must act on warning behavior before subordinates face an order to carry out mass destruction. Forensic psychologists classify observable preattack conduct through structured professional judgment. J. Reid Meloy developed the 18-indicator Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol, or TRAP-18, for national-security threat assessors. Meloy and Mary Ellen O’Toole define leakage as disclosing an intent to harm a target to third parties. Disclosure may occur through writing, video, or social media.
Meloy and Paul Gill tested TRAP-18 on 111 lone-actor terrorists and did not examine presidents with nuclear-launch authority. Forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee argues that psychiatrists must warn the public. The American Psychiatric Association requires examination and authorization before offering a professional opinion.
Serial killer David Berkowitz murdered six people in New York City during 1976–1977. Berkowitz wrote letters to police and press, signing them Son of Sam and naming his victims. Berkowitz used publicity to sustain terror between attacks, reaching people beyond the immediate victims. Criminologist Scott A. Bonn, who interviewed Berkowitz, argues that notoriety bolstered the killer’s fragile ego. For months, Trump has been leaving the country clues.
Thousands gathered on the weekend of May 17, 2026, for a prayer rally Trump had endorsed. Organizers of the National Mall prayer rally aired Trump’s prerecorded Bible reading on May 17, 2026. The President skipped the event and posted AI images instead. The pictures showed him in a space station, pressing a red button to launch nuclear weapons worldwide. Trump captioned them “Space Force.”
Six days earlier, on Monday night, May 11, 2026, Trump opened Truth Social at 10:14 p.m., and did not stop until 1:12 a.m. He fired off fifty-five posts in three hours, one every three minutes. He railed against Barack Obama and reposted Catturd2 calling the former president a traitor. Trump also ranted about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and imagined his face on the hundred-dollar bill.
People call this news. I call it a man at the end of his rope writing the country into his suicide note. Psychiatrist Otto F. Kernberg described malignant narcissism in Severe Personality Disorders: Psychotherapeutic Strategies (1984). Read together, Trump’s images portray presidential omnipotence: the power to devastate Earth while escaping the consequences.
“Donald Trump displays the most threatening time perspective profile, that of an extreme present hedonist, and is therefore ‘unfit for duty.’” — Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., Stanford psychology professor emeritus, and Rosemary Sword, co-developer of Time Perspective Therapy, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017).
Trump can impose irreversible consequences on the public before the impulse behind a presidential decision has subsided. The Daily Beast identified only five nights in April 2026 when Trump could have received a full night’s sleep. He prowls Truth Social from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and resurfaces at 6 or 7 a.m. before collapsing into taxpayer-funded afternoon naps. Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein characterized manic defense as omnipotent control that denies vulnerability through contempt. I read Trump’s online grandiosity through Klein as a defense against depressive anxiety.
The Financial Times counted fifty-seven AI-generated posts during May’s first three weeks, compared with eight throughout April. On May 22, Trump posted AI-generated Greenland images and a video showing him hurling Stephen Colbert into a dumpster. He cited Iran negotiations to explain his absence from Donald Trump Jr.’s weekend wedding celebration. Six weeks earlier, on April 7, Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight.” Amnesty International said the statement may constitute a threat to commit genocide.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee says senators accepted the medical warning, then waited for other senators to take the political risk. The senators’ hesitation leaves President Donald Trump able to order nuclear use without prior congressional approval. Millions of lives should never become the price of protecting a Senate seat.
“Humankind may become the first species on the planet to bring about its own extinction—unless we break free from the hypnosis of Donald Trump.” — Dr. Bandy X. Lee, forensic psychiatrist, “Battered Nation Syndrome,” March 15, 2026.
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Sources
- Amy B Wang. “Trump asks convention crowd to pledge to him they will vote, ‘cheat like hell’.” The Washington Post, September 11, 2026.
- Donald J. Trump. “Truth Social Posts of September 6, 2026.” The American Presidency Project, September 6, 2026.
- Diana Hembree. “‘The Most Dangerous Days of Our Lifetimes’: Psychiatrist Renews Call to Remove ‘Mentally Unfit’ Trump From Office.” MindSite News, June 30, 2026. Interview.
- Donald J. Trump. “Truth Social Posts of May 22, 2026.” The American Presidency Project, May 22, 2026.
- Donald J. Trump. “Truth Social Posts of May 17, 2026.” The American Presidency Project, May 17, 2026.
- Donald J. Trump. “Truth Social Posts of May 11, 2026.” The American Presidency Project, May 11, 2026.
- Dan Clark and Anna Nicolaou. “Inside Donald Trump’s AI ‘slopaganda’ machine.” Financial Times, May 19, 2026. Also published in The Irish Times, May 22, 2026. Subscription may be required.
- “Medical Concerns about President Donald J. Trump and His Fitness for Office.” Statement signed by 36 medical and mental-health professionals, April 30, 2026. Published by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, May 5, 2026.
- Josh Fiallo. “Disturbing Truth About Donald Trump’s Sleepless Posting on Truth Social Exposed.” The Daily Beast, May 3, 2026.
- Bandy X. Lee. “Transcript of Emergency Psychiatric Meeting, Part 3.” April 15, 2026; meeting held April 10, 2026. Also, “Battered Nation Syndrome,” March 15, 2026. The Newsletter of Dr. Bandy X. Lee.
- Amnesty International. “Iran: President Trump’s apocalyptic threats of large-scale civilian devastation demand urgent global action to prevent atrocity crimes.” April 7, 2026.
- The White House. “Memorandum From the Physician to the President.” July 17, 2025.
- Congressional Research Service. “Authority to Launch Nuclear Forces.” Report IF10521, updated December 11, 2025. Reproduced by EveryCRSReport.com.
- Greg Bruno. “Nuclear War Would Cause a Global Famine and Kill Billions, Rutgers-Led Study Finds.” Rutgers University, August 15, 2022. Report on Lili Xia and coauthors’ study in Nature Food.
- International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “Humanitarian impacts and risks of use of nuclear weapons.” August 29, 2020.
- Scott A. Bonn. “The Rise of the Son of Sam.” Psychology Today, October 30, 2023.
- Angela Guldimann and J. Reid Meloy. “Assessing the threat of lone-actor terrorism: the reliability and validity of the TRAP-18.” Forensische Psychiatrie, Psychologie, Kriminologie 14 (2020): 158–166. DOI: 10.1007/s11757-020-00596-y.
- Scott A. Bonn. “Inside the Mind of Serial Killer ‘Son of Sam’.” Psychology Today, February 10, 2014.
- James L. Knoll IV. “The ‘Pseudocommando’ Mass Murderer: A Blaze of Vainglory.” Psychiatric Times 29, no. 1, January 6, 2012.
- American Psychiatric Association. “American Psychiatric Association Ethics Committee Opinion.” March 15, 2017. Opinion on the Goldwater Rule.
- Philip Zimbardo and Rosemary Sword. “Unbridled and Extreme Present Hedonism: How the Leader of the Free World Has Proven Time and Again He Is Unfit for Duty.” In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, edited by Bandy X. Lee. Thomas Dunne Books, 2017. Publisher’s excerpt.
- Melanie Klein. “Mourning and its Relation to Manic-Depressive States.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis 21 (1940): 125–153. Reprinted PDF hosted by the Association of Jungian Analysts.
- “Hitler’s ‘Scorched Earth’ Decree (Nero Decree) (March 19, 1945) and Albert Speer’s Response (March 29, 1945).” German History in Documents and Images, German Historical Institute.
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