By Hal Brown, MSW
Mike Pence won’t read articles in Salon like “This psychopath has finally crossed the red line: He must be stopped now” by clinical psychologist Alan Blotcky. He writes about why Trump incited the attack on the Capitol:
This was the conniving and manipulative plan of a psychopath. In this attack we see Trump's conspiracy theories, dishonesty, victimhood, paranoia, desperation and cruelty. He is a sick man whose megalomania and violence have finally crossed the red line.
The imagery of the “red line” got me to thinking in a Dr. Strangelove way. I was inspired to tweet this:
Yesterday I wrote that we don’t need a diagnosis of Donald Trump to advocate for the 25th Amendment to be implemented.
I would amend that story today to say that the only people who need a psychiatric diagnosis of Trump immediately are Mike Pence and the Cabinet. They need to understand that Trump is not only a psychopath as Dr. Blotcky explains, but that he is in the throes of having a psychotic break. They should be meeting with mental health experts not tomorrow or next week, but today.
If the 25th Amendment isn’t invoked and Trump is impeached by the House, it is up to the Senate to try him so mental health experts must meet with the Senate Republican caucus starting now too.
The Poll
The main page of HuffPost looked like this when I first wrote this:
This is how it looks now:
How worried are you now that Trump may do something between today and on January 20th or thereafter which will result in more loss of life? You may want to read Chauncey DeVega’s interview with Duty to Warn founder Dr. John Gartner from before the riots. He predicted violence in the streets. “Dr. John Gartner on Trump and terrorism: ‘If he can't be president, he will make his force felt’" before answering the poll.