PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks on political rivals and strange decisions on geopolitical affairs have created a storm of controversy around the world.

His antics have resulted in a book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by journalist Michael Wolff. There may be exaggerations in the book, but some American psychiatrists have raised serious doubts on Trump’s mental health.

Bandy Lee, an assistant professor in forensic psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, briefed a dozen Congress members about Trump’s mental health, or should one say illness.

According to Lee, Trump’s mental illness will not only lead to military confrontation with North Korea, but provoke US allies and alienate them, and decisions such as recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would lead to violent conflicts. She also attributed the recent spike in gun attacks in the US to Trump’s violent approach.

Lee, who has devoted her 20-year career to studying, predicting, and preventing violence, had also called for an evaluation of what she said Trump’s mental disturbance. This has led to Trump’s first presidential physical evaluation in the White House on Jan 12.

But the serious issue is it will be Trump’s discretion to make public the result of the inquiry. Like millions around the world, my concern is what if Trump opts to keep his physical evaluation report a secret, especially if it includes mental evaluation.

Jamshaid Ahmad

Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2018