Trump Ended Rule To Block Mentally Ill From Getting Guns
The action was one of his earliest as president.
& #151 — President Donald Trump has often pointed to mental illness as the underlying cause for mass shootings, but one of his earliest actions as president was to undo a regulation that would have made it more difficult for people with a known mental illness to buy guns.
Nearly a year ago, on Feb. 28, 2017, President Trump signed H.J. Res. 40, effectively ending the Social Security Administration’s requirement to enter the names of people who receive mental health benefits into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. This is the database used by the FBI to determine who is able to purchase firearms.
Reads Hidden Demeaning Or Threatening Meanings Into Benign Remarks Or Events
Trump believes in various conspiracy theories based on vague information from tiny corners of the Internet , which is the definition of finding hidden meanings in benign events. His favorite writer is conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who among other things helped get the 9/11 was an inside job conspiracy theory going.
Additionally, his overreactions to the petty like Sean Spicer being played by a woman on SNL or the size of his inauguration crowd betray a paranoia of anything he perceives as a threat to his image. The classic case of this is his weird defensiveness about the size of his hands.
Privileged Behavior: Mental Illness Is Not Why Trump Became Emotionally Untethered From Humanity
Posted by John Pavlovitz | Jan 11, 2021 | John Pavlovitz
For years, people have been talking about Donald Trumps mental state, throwing around the term mental illness as a lazy catch-all for his erratic behavior, inexhaustible cruelty, and inexplicable recklessness. In the wake of the election, a growing choir has assembled singing the same refrain.
This has always struck me as particularly damaging, because it assumes something dangerous: that all mentally ill people are vengeful, bigoted, unrepentant sociopaths. We are not.
As one of the 51 million Americans who battles a brain affliction, I can attest to the reality that the vast majority of us are not oblivious to the feelings of other people or unaware of the results of our actions we are in fact, highly sensitive to them. It is precisely our illness that makes us feel the pain around us deeply, that causes us to notice the fractures and grieve the wounds of the world that many people are unaware of.
We are more emotionally tethered to humanity, not less.
Those of us navigating the daily minefield of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and bipolar disorders, do so while being profoundly burdened to be sources of healing and restoration here, to be agents of equity and fairness. We war with our demons while simultaneously fighting for other people in peril. Our illness and our kindness coexists every single day.
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Trump Addresses The Nation After Florida Shooting
President Trump has addressed the nation about mass shootings four times throughout his time in office. On Thursday, President Trump tweeted that the shooter involved in Floridas Parkland High School tragedy showed signs of being mentally disturbed, and urged for greater awareness for similar cases.
In November, President Trump cited mental health as the reason for the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting that left 26 people dead.
“Mental health is your problem here. This was a very, based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual, a lot of problems over a long period of time. We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries. But this isn’t a guns situation,” President Trump said of the First Baptist Church shooting during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
According to estimates from the previous administration, had the Obama-era regulation gone into effect, an estimated 75,000 individuals with mental illnesses would have been added to the database. These individuals would have been notified by the Social Security Administration of their possible restrictions to buy firearms but would have the opportunity go through an appeal process.
Although the rule was made effective days before Trump took office in January 2017, compliance was not required until December 2017.
The White House has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
Mental Health Professionals Say Donald Trump Is Too Unstable To Be President Heres A Deep Dive Into The Diagnosis And What Could Happen Because Of It
Albert Einstein is famously quoted: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting something to change.
This is not, of course, the actual definition of insanity. It also turns out Einstein never said this. It actually comes from an Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet from the 1980s.
Which is apropos, because nearly 60,000 mental health professionals have diagnosed President Donald Trump with a type of insanity that is often compared to an alcoholics lack of honesty and impulse control. Sparked by Change.org petitions by a top former Johns Hopkins professor and a California congresswoman, the psychiatric community has declared that Trump suffers from Malignant Narcissism.
What is that exactly? Does Trump actually suffer from it? If so, what does that mean? With the help of some concerned psychologists, weve broken the answers down.
Psychologists say that Trumps condition is a combination of mental disorders that cause one to distort reality and make violent, impulsive decisions. These disorders form, according to the doctor who coined the term Malignant Narcissism in the 1960s, the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness.
Unfortunately, unlike many other mental disorders, Malignant Narcissism makes its sufferers actively dangerous to other people. Its more akin to delusional schizophrenia than it is to anxiousness.
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If You Think Of Ways In Which You Or Your Loved Ones Will Be Affected By The Budget Feel Free To Also Share Your Thoughts About The Impact With Your Congressional Representatives By:
- Tweet them. Not sure of the Twitter handle of your members of Congress? Find them here.
- your Senators’ office or the Capitol Hill switchboard at 224-3121. Press #2. Then enter your zip code.
- Write to your Senator using . If this feature is available in your area, make sure your Constituent Badge is on. Many legislators will not read the comments of individuals who are not marked as one of their constituents.
- Meet with your elected officials. Let them know that mental health is important to you, and that you are not just a number.
Trump’s ‘mental Impairment Means He Cannot Think Strategically Or In Abstract Terms’ Claims Professor Of Psychiatry
A psychiatry professor claimed President Donald Trump is so mentally impaired that he cannot think in abstract terms and can only view things in a one-dimensional way.
Several experts in the areas of psychology and psychiatry have voiced concerns about Trump’s mental well-being. While some argue that it is important to do so given the global importance of the U.S. presidency and the power wielded by the office, critics say you cannot make a proper assessment or diagnosis without a face-to-face session.
“Trump has no policy on any issue because his mental impairment means he cannot think strategically or in abstract terms,” tweeted John M. Talmadge, MD, a physician and clinical professor of psychiatry at U.T. Southwestern Medical Center.
“He cannot weigh options, assess risk, or foresee consequences. Concepts like fairness, justice, honor, and integrity quite literally do not register. You can see this in every interview or press encounter. He never states an abstract thought or idea.
“Instead he falls back on simple adjectives: disgraceful, horrible, low-intelligence, perfect, innocent, nasty, stupid, fake, etc. He’s driven by negative emotion, often paranoid and often insulting, vulgar, vitriolic.”
UT Southwestern said Talmadge was speaking in a personal capacity.
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Signs Of Personality Or Mood Disorder
To any first-year psychiatric resident, Trumps sleepless nights filled with ranting tweets suggest irrational exuberance and lack of control, possibly a sign of a mood disorder called hypomania. His life-long history of disregard for others and deceit, if correct as reported, are characteristic of a personality disorder on the narcissistic and even sociopathic spectrum.
To be sure, definitive psychiatric diagnoses cannot be made without an in-person examination And certainly, psychiatric diagnoses themselves dont make someone unfit to be president. But President Trumps particular history and actions create a high index of suspicion for destructive mental processes which are putting the country and its safety and security in jeopardy.
Norman Ornstein:Donald Trump has lost to Joe Biden, what’s next? The presidential transition from hell.
If we had a functioning Republican Party, this would be the time either to pressure the president to resign early and let Vice President Mike Pence handle the remainder of the term or to invoke the 25th Amendment. At minimum, we would hope that key figures, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and other senior officials, would act to embrace the reality of the election outcome and put constraints on Trump to stop destructive acts. Instead, they are enabling his worst instincts and behaviors.
Often Envious Of Others Or Believes That Others Are Envious Of Him
Trumps been jealous of his senior adviser being put on the cover of Time Magazine, his running-mate having a great debate performance, and the fact that Jay-Z and Beyonce performed for Clinton instead of him. And he claims that Republicans are jealous as hell that Russian president Vladimir Putin likes him.
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Watch Trump’s And Pence’s Dueling Dc Speeches
Here’s a fact you may have missed amid all of the coverage of the allegations and revelations in the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa: The top general in the country believed that President Donald Trump was in significant enough mental decline that he took countermeasures to ensure Trump didn’t start a war with China on his way out the door.
“Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, ‘was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.’“Milley worried that Trump could ‘go rogue,’ the authors write.“‘You never know what a president’s trigger point is,’ Milley told his senior staff,”“The book details a private call McCarthy had with Trump the night before Biden’s inauguration. According to Woodward and Costa, McCarthy told Trump, ‘I don’t know what’s happened to you in the last two months. … You’re not the same as you were for the last four years.’“McCarthy then repeatedly pleaded with Trump to call Biden.“‘You’ve done good things and you want that to be your legacy. Call Joe Biden,’ McCarthy said, according to the authors.
Preoccupied With Doubts About The Loyalty Of Friends Or Associates
Its hard to get Trumps trust, and easy to get him to fire you for perceived disloyalty. He doesnt trust his staff, except for a few in the inner circle. He doesnt trust the intelligence agents who work for him. Federal workers dont trust him to not spy on them. And it didnt look like he trusted his wife to vote for him:
How much this preoccupies him is hard to say. But Trump is reported to be as paranoid in this area as Nixon, who was quite paranoid.
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What Have They Said Before
Psychologists had previously speculated about symptoms they purported to see in Mr Trump’s behaviour.
Several books came out on the topic within months of the Trump inauguration: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Bandy X Lee, Twilight of American Sanity by Allen Frances and Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen.
Dr Lee, who is a psychiatry professor at Yale, told a group of mostly-Democrat senators last month that Mr Trump was “going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs”. But it’s worth remembering that none of these people have treated Mr Trump, nor do they have close-up information on his state of mind.
Anyone who has treated him would be going against ethics standards and, in most cases, federal law if they disclosed any details.
Similarities With Fred Trump
Many social media users started pointing out similarities between the former president and his father Fred. “What is happening here?” one asked while bringing in to focus an abnormality on Trump’s face. Another user said, “We’re just gonna pretend like Trump’s face isn’t becoming like his dad? That doesn’t look “good” to me. Also, remember how multiple people said they believed Trump had Alzheimer’s and were trying to get someone to invoke the 25th? No way Trump is going to run in 2024.” And like that, another user predicted Trump’s future. “Its not Alzheimers, its frontotemporal dementia. But when one is old and gets any type of dementia, the decline is slower than if they are, say, in their 50s Fred hung on til age 94. I doubt Donald will though.” A user finally tweeted, “He looks like shit. no way he makes it to 2024.”
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Many Mental Health Professionals Believe The President Is Ill But What If The Cause Is An Untreated Std
Al Franken recently raised a provocative question about Donald Trump: Is he mentally ill? On HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher last week, the Minnesota senator claimed that some of his Republican colleagues have great concern about the presidents temperament, adding that theres a range in what theyll say, and some will say that hes not right mentally. And some are harsher. Two days later, he told CNNs Jake Tapper, We all have this suspicion thatyou know, that hes nothe lies a lotAnd, you know, that is not the norm for a president of the United States, or, actually, for a human being.
Franken is not alone in his suspicions. Last year, Jeb Bush said of his Republican primary opponent, Im not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but the guy needs therapy. Senator Bernie Sanders recently Trump delusional in many respects, a pathological liar. And Congressman Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, is introducing legislation that would require the White House to have a psychiatrist on staff. Im looking at it from the perspective of, if there are questions about the mental health of the president of the United States, what may be the best way to get the president treatment? he told the Huffington Post.
Dr. Steven Beutler has spent over 30 years practicing medicine, specializing in infectious diseases.
Psychiatry Group Tells Members They Can Ignore Goldwater Rule And Comment On Trumps Mental Health
Assigning psychological disorders to Trump is not only wrong but futile. Vice President Pence, the Cabinet, and Congress would never invoke the 25th Amendment because it would amount to political suicide for everyone concerned and for the Republican Party. Any psychological fitness exam would also be inherently biased and unreliable. My guess is that Trump will eventually be removed from power, but via the appropriate investigative and political process, not a psychiatric evaluation.
I believe that Trump is a mirror of the American soul, a surface symptom of our deeper societal disease. He may not be crazy, but we certainly were for electing him. We mustnt waste this Trumpian dark age. If we dont learn from it, we will keep making the same mistakes.
Allen Frances, M.D., was chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University and also chaired the task force responsible for revising the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. He is the author of Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump .
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Heres Donald Trumps Scorecard For Malignant Narcissism:
There is no question. Donald Trump suffers from Malignant Narcissism.
No other president has come close to this disorder. Manipulation is a common trait among politicians. Its part of the definition of politics. Bill Clinton could be deceitful. George W. Bush showed some reckless tendencies . Barack Obama could be private and a touch arrogant. But none of them remotely qualify as mentally ill.
Trump, on the other hand, over-qualifies. Says Dr. Gartner,
If I wanted to take out the DSM and say, I want to create a Frankenstein monster I want to create the most dangerous leader that could possibly be imagined and I had a free hand to mix and match any set of diagnoses and symptoms, I couldnt improve on Donald Trump.
So What’s The Evidence With Mr Trump
It is worth reiterating, there is no real evidence as nobody speaking publicly has examined the president.
- Grandiosity, a lack of empathy for other people and a need for admiration
- They believe they are superior or may deserve special treatment
- They seek excessive admiration and attention, and struggle with criticism or defeat
But the man who wrote the diagnostic criteria for NPD, Allen Frances, said a lack of obvious distress stopped him from saying Mr Trump had the condition.
“Mr Trump causes severe distress rather than experiencing it and has been richly rewarded, rather than punished, for his grandiosity, self-absorption and lack of empathy,” he wrote.
Wolff’s book has prompted some to ask if Mr Trump might be suffering from cognitive decline.
Repetition of stories and the way Mr Trump speaks have been put forward to back up the claims.
When neurological experts compared clips of Mr Trump in the past with more recent footage, they found his manner of speaking had totally changed. In the past he spoke in long and complicated sentences, following thoughts through and using long adjectives while in more recent clips, he used fewer and shorter words, missed words out, rambled, and was more likely to use superlatives like “the best”.
This could be due to a neurological condition like Alzheimer’s, some experts said, or it could be a symptom of nothing more sinister than age.
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