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Donald Trump is a psychopath, suffers psychosis and is an 'enormous present danger', says psychiatrist

Former Harvard professor calls US President 'an extremely incapable, disordered, sick individual'

Benjamin Kentish
Thursday 30 November 2017 15:47 GMT
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Psychiatrist: Trump's mental state is an 'enormous present danger'

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Donald Trump is suffering from psychopathy and has a mental state that poses an “enormous present danger”, a clinical psychiatrist has said.

The US President has psychosis and is “a very sick man”, said Dr Lance Dodes, a former assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who now works for the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

It comes after Mr Trump provoked fury by retweeting three Islamophobic videos posted by the deputy leader of far-right group Britain First.

Dr Dodes told US cable channel MSNBC: “It’s another example of his being close to psychosis when he’s stressed.

“The simple explanation for it, which people don’t want to hear, is that he’s not in control of himself. This is what we mean when we say that somebody is becoming psychotic or is briefly psychotic."

He added: “All of his delusional ideas come up when he is stressed in some way, and then he loses track of reality because it doesn’t fit what he needs to believe.”

Dr Dodes said it was “an extremely dangerous thing” for a position of power to be held by someone who “appears so wantonly unconcerned about the welfare of others and willing to do anything to promote himself”.

He added that Mr Trump was "an enormous present danger to us from the standpoint of creating a nuclear war and even from the standpoint of doing what he can to destroy democracy as well as attacking ethnic groups in the way he’s done.

“This is a very sick man. He is truly very sick”.

Mr Trump was "villainous because of his sociopathy and psychopathy but with a tremendous veneer that he’s extremely good at,” he said.

Nothing that Mr Trump might do would now be surprising to him, including dissolving the US constitution, firing the Supreme Court or starting a nuclear war with North Korea, because such actions would be “consistent” with his previous behaviour”, he added.

The US Congress and allies of Mr Trump need to accept that the President is “an extremely incapable, disordered, sick individual”, he added.

The President was also widely condemned this week for retweeting three anti-Muslim videos posted by Britain First’s deputy leader, Jayda Fransen.

Emily Thornberry: Donald Trump is 'trying to humiliate and belittle' Theresa May

The tweets prompted a rebuke from Theresa May, whose official spokesman said: "British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents - decency, tolerance and respect."

"It is wrong for the president to have done this."

Mr Trump hit back, writing on Twitter: “Theresa May, don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”

The row led to fresh calls for the Republican’s planned state visit to the UK to be cancelled.

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