Establishment media outlets including CNN and MSNBC have helped mainstream a conspiracy theory claiming President Donald Trump is mentally ill.
At the center of the conspiracy theory is Yale psychiatry professor Bandy Lee, who for over a year has claimed that Trump is mentally impaired and unfit to serve, pointing at his tweets as evidence.
During Trump’s presidential campaign, Lee flouted industry norms against publicly diagnosing a patient without his consent or an in-person examination. She justified doing so on the grounds that she is “obligated to break them in times of emergency.” She continued her campaign after the election, earning a book deal in the process.
Lee told New York magazine in April last year that she was a “pariah” at her department because of her campaign about the president’s mental health, which now includes the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.” Lee’s book, which came out Oct. 3, argued that psychiatrists have a “duty to warn” the country about President Trump.