Bandy X. Lee, DC Report @Raw Story

As U.S. Covid-19 deaths have exceeded 500,000, an article in the Lancet lays much of the responsibility squarely on Donald Trump.

While much has been said about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the true scandal is how and why a psychologically dangerous person was allowed to preside over more American deaths in one year than those by all the terrorists and foreign enemies in one hundred years.

If impeachment for inciting violent insurrection was too slow, occurring a week after the event as he held onto full nuclear powers, for the deadliest assault that was killing thousands of Americans every day, impeachment did not even happen....

In 2017, Dr. Judith Herman and I stated in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President: "Power not only corrupts but also magnifies existing psychopathologies, even as it creates new ones."

We warned of an authoritarian cult of personality and growing contempt for the rule of law, which would spread throughout the culture unless stopped. Donald Trump's presidency was dangerous not because of his individual afflictions but his capacity, as president, to amplify and exacerbate society's defects, especially if he faced no accountability.

To the end of his presidency, he was not contained or held accountable. The American Psychiatric Association advanced a perverse version of "the Goldwater rule" to silence expert alarms, the way the Department of Justice revived a controversial internal Office of the Legal Counsel memo to place a president above the law. As a result, Donald Trump may have left the office of the presidency, but "Trumpism" not only continues but flourishes. As the House managers in the impeachment trial have reminded us with their effective use of videos of the Capitol insurrection, the Trump infection, once spread, manifests in deadly, violent behavior....

The Trump presidency may be over, but Donald Trump's dangers continue. This is because we have yet to contain the number one emergency, which is the spread of mental pathology.

Without addressing this mental health pandemic, even the Biden administration's admirable efforts to contain the viral pandemic may meet with obstacles. Similarly, without conviction and prosecution, which is the first step to containing this mental health pandemic, hopes for "reconciliation" and "unity" may also be for naught.

Mental health professionals knew from the start that Donald Trump had the psychological makeup to become very dangerous with presidential powers. Following our 2017 assessment, I and thousands of my colleagues at the World Mental Health Coalition issued more than 300 pages of letters, petitions, and statements asserting that Donald Trump's dangers would spread and erupt. In March 2020, we issued a "Prescription for Survival," stating that the president's removal through the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or resignation—or at least removal of influence—was essential to avoiding widespread unnecessary deaths....

Since March 2020, our body of mental health experts, the World Mental Health Coalition, has urgently recommended that Donald Trump be removed from the presidency, whether via the 25th Amendment, impeachment, resignation, or an involuntary psychiatric hold. Following his incitement of violent insurrection where five people were killed and a massacre of lawmakers was attempted, we have issued a call for his removal from the presidency for medical reasons.

While a second impeachment is a step in the right direction, without actual conviction and removal, the public remains vulnerable. As president, Donald Trump officially controls access to weapons capable of destroying civilization.

As independent mental health professionals with detailed knowledge of the president's condition, we have urged a reopening of the possibility of Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, or any other means of removal of presidential powers, including a psychiatric evaluation for immediate safety measures....

On Christmas Eve, Donald Trump threatened to derail a pandemic relief bill that took 9 months to reach bipartisan agreement on, plunging millions into uncertainty as he vacationed and golfed. By waiting until Sunday evening before abruptly signing the bill, he allowed unemployment programs to lapse, which will lead to delays and loss of benefits for countless Americans out of work.

This occasion gives us another glimpse of just how far he is willing to go with his anger (at congressional Republicans for not backing his false voter fraud claims), his revenge (against Americans for rejecting him), and his cruelty (of finding pleasure in inflicting suffering on those he despises). Now, he is calling on thousands to come to Washington, DC, to challenge Congress' final approval of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on January 6.

Over the weekend, David Ignatius wrote a Washington Post article by the title: "Until Biden's Win is Certified, the U.S. Remains Vulnerable." This is what mental health experts have been trying to say since before the election. Donald Trump lost the election, and his legal challenges never had a chance, but just as with the pandemic, the dangers are not confined to the virus or, in this case, the law. Rather, the real dangers are where he has weakened systems or has recruited his followers to an alternative reality....