Are These the Words of a Sane Man? Trump: “A whole civilization will die tonight”

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

The shocking tirade above is an actual White House post on Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days of the year, from Donald Trump. This was followed by an equally ugly rant that threatened the slaughtering of civilians:

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” It ended with vicious mockery:“God Bless the Great People of Iran.”

Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, called Trump’s posts “completely, utterly unhinged“ and added this: “If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment,” he wrote. “He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Georgia Congresswoman and one-time MAGA star, tweeted her outrage and called for the use of the 25th amendment.

Psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee has been warning for nearly a decade that Trump is mentally ill – “a seriously psychologically dangerous and disturbed person” – and she began stepping up those warnings when he reentered office more than a year ago. Last month, as we noted in a story, she wrote this:

“We are in the most dangerous days of our lifetimes, days pregnant with an escalating World War and the very real possibility that a severely mentally-incapacitated American president… may escalate to nuclear weapons.” 

Lee says that Trump’s invective, wrapped in religious mockery, is the product of a sick mind, as are his moves to slash social services.

In a recent speech quickly pulled down by the White House staff, Trump announced it is “not possible” for the federal government to continue to pay for Medicare, Medicaid, and day care because “we’re fighting wars.” 

In a Substack column last week, Lee wrote that “Donald Trump is severely mentally-compromised and unstable, and …he could turn to nuclear weapons precisely because of his mental fragility.”

The 25th amendment allows for a president to be removed from office when “the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide (emphasis added), transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” In that event, the vice president becomes acting president.

So how could Congress act to itself initiate Trump’s removal on the grounds of his mental illness, using this Constitutional provision? It’s unclear, Peter Yacobucci, an associate professor of political science at Buffalo State University, told The National.

“This is uncharted territory and nobody really knows what that means,” he said.

He noted that the 25th Amendment has been invoked in the past when sitting presidents have undergone medical procedures requiring them to be placed under anaesthetic, but “it has never been used to try to remove the power of a president against their will,” Dr Yacobucci said.

Bandy Lee has been calling for Trump to be removed from office for his own good as well as that of the world. Now, finally, others seem to be taking up the call. The question is: Will Trump’s cabinet – chosen for loyalty above all else – have that kind of courage? And if not, will Congress take it upon itself to explore this “uncharted territory?” The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

In other news:

Children with developmental disabilities are more likely to report chronic pain than those without such disabilities, parents reported, according to a new study discussed in Medscape. This was especially true of children suffering from cerebral palsy or seizures. “Targeted screening should be prioritized for such children, and when pain is identified, referral to a multidisciplinary pediatric pain clinic for treatment is recommended,” the study authors wrote.

Trump was criticized for misogyny in firing Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi in quick succession in stories in The Guardian and other news outlets, especially since both were replaced by men. No argument here about Trump’s sexism, but in this case the dismissals are also cause for rejoicing, as I suggested in a Medium story last year on the ICE mavens working for Trump.

A satirical music video by Presidente Trumpito @ScaredKetchup highlights Bondi’s ugly behavior and is well worth watching. Scholar Austin Sarat in The Conversation also examined why Bondi’s extreme political loyalty to Trump did not save her from disaster since Trump declared as early as 2017 that he had the “absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.”