George Conway’s recent tweets highlight Trump is unfit for the Presidency

Over the course of the last week, George Conway, husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, joined a chorus of voices drawing attention to President Trump’s disturbing pattern of erratic and deranged behavior. Individuals spanning a wide range of professions, from journalists, to psychologists, to mental health experts, have raised concerns regarding the status of Donald Trump’s mental health. In February 2018, Need to Impeach convened a panel of mental health professionals to discuss Trump’s mental fitness.

Below is an overview of individuals from a handful of professions, both political and medical, who have expressed concerns over Donald Trump’s alarming habits. A president who spends eight hours a day watching cable TV, has a notoriously unhealthy diet, and consistently gets around four hours of sleep a night should be a concern to all of us.

DOCTORS AND MENTAL HEALTH EXPERTS:

National Coalition of Concerned Mental Health Experts: Trump is Further Unraveling. “We write as mental health professionals who have been deeply concerned about Donald Trumpʼs psychological aberrations. We believe that he is now further unraveling in ways that contribute to his belligerent nuclear threats.” [Politico, 1/3/18]

70 Mental Health Experts Urged Trump’s Doctor To Give Him Neurological Exam. “A group of more than 70 psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals sent a letter to President Donald Trumpʼs physician on Thursday imploring him to include an evaluation of the presidentʼs neurological health in a physical examination scheduled for Friday.” [Politico, 1/11/18; see also: CNN, 1/16/18; Letter, 1/11/18]

Dr. John Gartner, Psychologist: “We Are in a Deteriorating Situation.” According to Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist, the stress of Muellerʼs escalating investigation is “clearly driving him crazy […] What we need to understand is that for him, this also is pushing him towards pushing the nuclear button because it would solve all of his problems. […] We are not in a static situation—we are in a deteriorating situation. […] As every day goes by, we are at greater risk of total annihilation.” [Newsweek, 2/13/2018]

Former Air Force Psychiatrist: Trump “Would Probably Fail” Mental Stability Standards for Handling Nuclear Weapons. According to Steven Buser, a psychiatrist for the United State Air Force who was responsible for evaluating the mental stability of airmen who handled nuclear weapons, “We have always assumed that the person at the top has the mental fitness to meet whatever standards the Air Force set for the rest of the chain of command. What keeps me up at night? The realization that, at the worst possible time, we have a chief executive who I believe would probably fail the P.R.P.” [New York Times, 1/17/18]

TRUMP’S STAFF AND ELECTED REPUBLICANS:

Trump’s Advisors Describe a White House Filled With “Anxiety.” “Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center. […] Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal.” [Washington Post, 3/3/18]

Trump’s Friends Worry About His Well-Being; Called His Actions “Pure Madness.” “Still, Trump’s friends are increasingly concerned about his well-being, worried that the president’s obsession with cable commentary and perceived slights is taking a toll on the 71-year-old. ‘Pure madness,’ lamented one exasperated ally.” [Washington Post, 3/3/18]

Prominent Republicans and Trump Advisors Describe the President as “Unfocused and Consumed by Dark Moods.” “I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods.” [Vanity Fair, 10/11/17]

John Kelly Called Trump an “Idiot” and Portrayed Himself “The Lone Bulwark Against Catastrophe.” “The officials said Kelly portrays himself to Trump administration aides as the lone bulwark against catastrophe, curbing the erratic urges of a president who has a questionable grasp on policy issues and the functions of government. He has referred to Trump as ‘an idiot’ multiple times to underscore his point, according to four officials who say they’ve witnessed the comments.” [NBC News, 4/30/18]

Reince Priebus “Seemed to Regard Himself as Trump’s Babysitter.” “Dining alone with Priebus a few weeks earlier, Bushʼs chief Josh Bolten had been alarmed: Priebus seemed to regard himself as Trumpʼs babysitter and had given little thought to governing. “I could tell that he was nervous about leaving Trump alone and was kind of candid about ‘If Iʼm not there, Lord knows what happens,ʼ” Bolten recalled. In his view, Priebus seemed ‘neither focused on organizing his White House staff nor in control of his own life. He was just responding to the fire of the day.’” [Vanity Fair, 2/14/18]

Senator Corker Said Trump Was Unstable. “Senator Bob Corker, unleashing one of the most pointed attacks from a Republican official on President Donald Trump, said on Thursday the president had not yet shown the “stability and competence” the United States needs, nor an understanding of the nation’s character.” [Reuters, 8/17/17]

  • Senator Bob Corker Called the White House an “Adult Day Care Center.” On October 8, 2017, Corker wrote: “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.” [Twitter, 10/8/17]

Senator Jeff Flake: Donald Trump’s Behavior is “Dangerous to a Democracy.” In October, Senator Jeff Flake said during his retirement speech, “Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy.” [Vox, 10/24/17]

Senior Trump Administration Official Penned an Op-Ed Saying that Trump Acts Erratically. “Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making. […]  From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. […] Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.” [New York Times, 5/9/18]

Former President and COO of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino: Trump’s Mean Streak is “Almost Sociopathic.” “There’s a mean streak that runs through Donald Trump’s heart,” says Jack O’Donnell, former President and COO of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. “There is a piece of this that is almost sociopathic, that he likes to hurt people. … It’s who he is.” [CNN, 3/20/19]

NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS:

50 Republican Officials Warned Donald Trump Would Put Nation’s Security at Risk. “Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump ‘lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.’ Mr. Trump, the officials warn, ‘would be the most reckless president in American history.’” [New York Times, 8/8/16]

James Clapper Questioned Trump’s Fitness to Hold Office. “James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence, said Wednesday morning he questioned President Donald Trump’s fitness for office. ‘I really question his ability to be — his fitness to be — in this office, and I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation for it,’ Clapper told CNN’s Don Lemon on ‘CNN Tonight.’” [CNN, 8/24/17]

General McMaster Called Trump an “Idiot,” and a “Dope” with the Intelligence of a “Kindergartner.” “McMaster bluntly trashed his boss, said the sources, four of whom told BuzzFeed News they heard about the exchange directly from Catz. The top national security official dismissed the president variously as an ‘idiot’ and a ‘dope’ with the intelligence of a ‘kindergartner,’ the sources said. [Buzzfeed, 10/20/17]

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Called Trump a “Moron.” “Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a ‘moron,’ after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident.” [NBC, 10/4/17]

Secretary of Defense Mattis: Trump had the understanding of  a “Fifth or Sixth Grader.” President Trump so alarmed his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, during a discussion last January of the nuclear standoff with North Korea that an exasperated Mr. Mattis told colleagues “the president acted like — and had the understanding of — a ‘fifth or sixth grader.’” [New York Times, 9/4/18]

Retired Four-Star Army General: “The President Is Starting To Wobble In His Emotional Stability.” “Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed. ‘I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,’ McCaffrey said. ‘Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.’” [Washington Post, 3/3/18]

JOURNALISTS & INFLUENCERS:

Bill Kristol: “Think Seriously About [Trump’s] Mental Condition and Psychological State.” “To Republicans who’ve been inclined to acquiesce in a Trump re-nomination in 2020: Read his tweets this morning. Think seriously about his mental condition and psychological state. Then tell me you’re fine with him as president of the United States for an additional four years. [Twitter, 3/17/19]

New York Daily News: Trump is Undeniably “Mentally Unwell.” “The President of the United States is profoundly unstable. He is mad. He is, by any honest laymanʼs definition, mentally unwell and viciously lashing out.” [New York Daily News, 11/29/17]

President Bush’s Ethics Lawyer: Trump is “Psychologically Unfit.” On January 2, 2018, Richard Painter, called Donald Trump along with Kim Jong Un “psychologically unfit men crowing about their nukes.” He later wrote that Trump’s tweet to the North Korean leaders: “is grounds for removal from office under the 25th Amendment” and that Trump “should not have nukes.” [Twitter, 1/2/18; Twitter, 1/2/18]

Peter Wehner, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center: “He is breaking Apart Before Our Eyes” “The cognitive and emotional/psychological decline of the president is clearly accelerating. He is breaking apart before our eyes. It is a remarkable thing to witness; and it’s only going to get worse. We’re in uncharted waters.” [Twitter, 3/20/19]