'Trump’s psychological impairments are obvious': GOP White House veteran

A White House veteran said President Donald Trump's psychological problems were obvious to all but those who refuse to see.

Peter Wehner, who served in the Reagan administration and both Bush White Houses, has been concerned about Trump's mental state since the 2016 campaign, and he argued in a new Atlantic column that those psychological problems had become impossible to ignore.

"Donald Trump’s disordered personality — his unhealthy patterns of thinking, functioning, and behaving — has become the defining characteristic of his presidency," Wehner wrote. "It manifests itself in multiple ways: his extreme narcissism; his addiction to lying about things large and small, including his finances and bullying and silencing those who could expose them; his detachment from reality, including denying things he said even when there is video evidence to the contrary; his affinity for conspiracy theories; his demand for total loyalty from others while showing none to others; and his self-aggrandizement and petty cheating."

"It manifests itself in Trump’s impulsiveness and vindictiveness," Wehner added, "his craving for adulation; his misogyny, predatory sexual behavior, and sexualization of his daughters; his open admiration for brutal dictators; his remorselessness; and his lack of empathy and sympathy, including attacking a family whose son died while fighting for this country, mocking a reporter with a disability, and ridiculing a former POW."

Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly in the White House and remained in contact with the president until recently, has warned that Trump was in severe mental decline, and Wehner said psychiatric training wasn't necessary to see the problems.

"If a clinical diagnosis is beyond my own expertise, Trump’s psychological impairments are obvious to all who are not willfully blind," Wehner wrote. "On a daily basis we see the president’s chaotic, unstable mind on display. Are we supposed to ignore that?"

He shared an analogy to make his point.

"If smoke is coming out from under the hood of your car, if you notice puddles of oil under it, if the engine is overheating and you smell burning oil, you don’t have to be a car mechanic to know that something is wrong with your car," Wehner wrote.