Officials from the Trump administration reportedly contacted a Yale University psychiatrist last year because President Trump was “scaring” them. Dr. Bandy Lee told Salon…
Officials from the Trump administration reportedly contacted a Yale University psychiatrist last year because President Trump was “scaring” them.
Dr. Bandy Lee told Salon and The New York Daily News on Thursday that two White House officials flagged Trump’s behavior last October.
“[They] said that Trump was ‘scaring’ them, that he was ‘unraveling,” Lee, who wrote the book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” told Salon.
“Not wishing to confuse the role I chose, as an educator of the public, and a potential treatment role, I referred them to the local emergency room without inquiring much further,” Lee added to Salon.
Lee also wrote an op-ed declaring that Trump is a “dangerous leader.”
Lee repeated to The Daily News that she did not mention this development before because “I did not want to confuse my role an educator to the public.”
“I thought I would be more effective by retaining my public role then getting involved in either the treatment of those who were feeling scared or in the actual intervention with the President,” she added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
The claim from Lee comes during a week in which scrutiny increased on both the president and staffers who might be working against him.
On Wednesday, The New York Times published an op-ed from an anonymous senior Trump administration official who argued that the president’s actions are “detrimental” to the health of the nation.
“The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making,” the official wrote, adding that aides work around Trump to make sure his desires are not enforced.
In addition, excerpts from a new book written by journalist Bob Woodward detail several scenarios in which frustrated officials have allegedly sought to block Trump’s decisions.
For example, former top economic adviser Gary Cohn is reported to have removed paperwork, unnoticed, from Trump’s desk that the president intended to sign to withdraw the United States from trade agreements.
Trump and the White House have pushed back hard against the validity of Woodward’s reporting and The New York Times op-ed.
“I’m draining the Swamp, and the Swamp is trying to fight back,” Trump tweeted Wednesday night. “Don’t worry, we will win!”
