Trump Needs 'Hospital-Level Care' Before Midterms, Says Psychiatrist Who Warns He Could Turn Vindictive
A psychiatrist who has long criticised Donald Trump says the US president needs 'hospital-level care' before the midterm elections on 3 November. Dr Bandy Lee made the claim in an interview with MeidasTouch, but she has not examined him, and her remarks are opinion rather than an established diagnosis. The White House has previously rejected psychiatric conclusions drawn from his public behaviour.
Psychiatrist Says Trump Needs Hospital-Level Care Before Midterms
Lee, a forensic psychiatrist, appeared on The Weekend Show with host Anthony Davis. Lee cited a psychopathy assessment that she and her colleagues reported in connection with Trump. A published report by Lee assigned him a score of 35 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised, prorated to 36 out of 40.
The assessment and its methodology have not been independently verified for this article. She has not examined Trump. The Goldwater Rule discourages such remote opinions.
Lee argued that Justice Juan Merchan should have ordered a hospital-level evaluation of Trump before sentencing in his New York criminal case to assess his potential dangerousness. This was Lee's recommendation, not a finding by the court.
A jury convicted Trump in May 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In January 2025, the judge gave him an unconditional discharge, with no jail time or fine.
Lee predicted Trump would become 'more aggressive and more demanding', partly because, she said, he feels himself diminishing. She cited reports that he appeared confused walking into an empty field, and what she called his growing disinhibition. Those reports were not independently verified for this article.
The Goldwater Rule and the Limits of Remote Opinion
The caveat hangs over every such intervention. The Goldwater Rule, adopted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1973, states that it is unethical for APA-member psychiatrists to offer professional opinions about public figures without examining them and obtaining proper authorisation. The rule applies to professional opinions, not just formal diagnoses.
The APA's guidance extends beyond formal diagnoses to professional opinions about a person's behaviour, speech or mental state. The association has said a proper evaluation requires more than a review of television appearances, tweets and public comments, and that it can enforce the rule only among its own members.
Some academics argue the rule suppresses public discussion of potentially dangerous public figures, and Lee has been among its critics. Available sources do not establish whether she is a member of the association.
Lee edited the 2017 bestseller The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. Her work later earned her an invitation to brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and she now serves as president of the World Mental Health Coalition.
What the White House Has Said About Trump's Health
Trump, who turned 80 on 14 June 2026, has repeatedly pointed to his own medical results. In a Truth Social post in January, he said White House doctors had reported him in perfect health and that he had scored 100 per cent on a cognitive examination for the third straight time.
The specific cognitive examination Trump says he took has not been identified in the cited statement. Cognitive screening tests assess selected areas of mental functioning but are not comprehensive psychiatric evaluations. A perfect score on a screening test would not, by itself, rule out every neurological or psychiatric condition or establish whether someone is fit to hold office.
That distinction matters here, since Lee's argument concerns behaviour rather than memory. A White House response to Lee's latest remarks was not found at the time of writing.
With the midterms approaching, Lee's call for hospital-level care rests on her interpretation of Trump's public behaviour and reports rather than a direct clinical examination. Trump has said that White House doctors reported him to be in 'perfect health', but this statement was made by the president on social media.
Lee made an earlier warning on the same programme on 20 September, when she spoke of an extremely dangerous situation given the powers attached to the presidency.