I’m the psychiatrist who warned the world about Trump. Here’s why I fear what comes next

After the Republicans’ crushing midterm defeat, forensic psychiatrist Dr Bandy X Lee says Donald Trump could lash out in an attempt to restore his image – with potentially catastrophic consequences.

By Alex Hannaford, The Independent

President Donald Trump’s response to the shellacking handed to his party in America’s midterm elections has, at the time of writing, been fairly measured for a man not known for his restraint. Now, though, is the time to contain him; otherwise, he may be in danger of heaping unprecedented destruction on a world that he sees as having either failed him or declared him a “loser”.

That’s the conclusion of Dr Bandy X Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and violence expert who has been speaking out about Trump’s mental health since he was first elected in 2016. As editor of the New York Times bestseller The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, back in April, she was one of a group of 36 leading US mental health experts who issued a statement calling for Trump’s removal from office in response to what they felt was his increasingly unhinged behaviour.

In an abusive relationship, the most dangerous time for a woman is the moment she tries to leave her violent partner. On Tuesday, America took its first steps out of the door, packing its bag to leave Trumpism behind. Now comes the part every survivor dreads: the punishment, the lashing out. And by not containing Trump now, Lee said, he could be capable of anything.

Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Robert Pape, a politics professor specialising in international security at the University of Chicago, said that in the run-up to January and the swearing-in of thousands of Democratic politicians, “we are about to enter the eight most dangerous weeks in our lives”.

Pope said the US midterms determined the fate of the Trump administration – and that the most dangerous time is the transition of power. “We saw this with January 6th,” he said. “So what happens in this transition period could easily dovetail with the Iran war because President Trump has promised over and over again he will escalate after the elections. Well now we’re after the elections…”

During his first in-person TV appearance after the defeat, Trump didn’t even speak about the elections: he spent 20 minutes walking reporters around a building site that was once the East Wing of the White House, talking about how the ballroom he is constructing in its place will be “the safest place in Washington”, and autographing a steel supporting beam with the word “Love!”

For Lee, it was a sign that the election results, the idea of being a loser, were just too painful for him to face. “He probably finds comfort in the ballroom – he is speaking about ‘safety’ there and ‘love’,” – something, Lee says, he has yearned for all his life but which he lacks. “His anger is actually at his parents for not giving him what he needed when he was two years old, but this translates into revenge against the entire world. The whole planet may be his target now.”