In 2015, Andreas Lubitz, a Germanwings pilot, deliberately crashed Flight 9525 into the French Alps, killing all 156 passengers on board. It was preventable. Lubitz had been flagged by psychiatrists as unfit to fly — treated for depression, prescribed antidepressants, had even researched "rapid descent" on the Internet. Yet he was allowed to take the controls.
People in the chain of command knew and did not act. Lufthansa acknowledged they had knowledge of his state of mind before he set foot on that plane. There was a shortage of pilots, business was booming, and the safety of passengers was obviously not at the top of their list.
How did this guy get to fly a plane when other people were aware he was unfit and would likely crash it given the opportunity?
Then came 2016, and history was eerily repeating itself. I went from a cocky foregone conclusion that it was simply impossible Trump could ever be our President, to: "What do we do now?"
A Clinician's Duty to Warn
As mental health professionals, when someone poses an imminent threat, our duty to warn overrides all other considerations. Two hundred years ago it was Paul Revere: "The British are coming!" Today it falls to the mental health community to sound the alarm. Over eight thousand mental health professionals signed a declaration deeming Donald Trump unfit and dangerous. This is not politics — it is public safety.
When conducting a fitness-for-duty evaluation, we measure mental and emotional stability, temperament, judgment, capacity for empathy, and ability to act in others' interests.
The Evaluation
Trump's profile is not subtle. What we are looking at is a man who demonstrates:
Narcissistic personality features — grandiosity, an insatiable need for admiration, an inability to tolerate criticism, and a profound absence of empathy. When he doesn't get what he wants, he retaliates. When he is challenged, he attacks. When facts contradict him, he invents new ones. "Alternative facts" is not a rhetorical quirk — it is a symptom.
Sociopathic features — a disregard for the rights and wellbeing of others, pathological lying, manipulation without remorse, and predatory behavior used as a tool of dominance. He doesn't just lie; he lies with confidence, with pleasure, with the expectation that reality will eventually bend to accommodate him.
Predatory behavior on record — This is not speculation. Jessica Leeds described him as acting like an octopus, his hands moving everywhere. Natasha Stoynoff described being pinned against a wall. He bragged on tape about grabbing women without consent. He entered the dressing rooms of pageant contestants — some of them minors — because he could. When Salma Hayek declined his advances, he tried to destroy her career.
A man who does these things in private, in corridors of power with nothing at stake but his own ego — what does he do with the fate of a nation in his hands?
The Frozen Woman
Early in my career, I had a patient I'll call the frozen woman. She came into my office, sat down, and within minutes went completely rigid. Her eyes rolled back. She stopped responding. I didn't know what I was looking at. I had no training for this. I sat with her — frozen myself — for two long minutes, not knowing whether to call 911, whether she would come back, whether I had done something wrong.
She came back. She opened her eyes, looked at me as if seeing me for the first time, and said, "Who are you?"
That moment taught me something I have never forgotten: when you do not know what you are looking at, you cannot respond to it appropriately. You freeze. People get hurt. Planes crash.
We need, as a country, the same training. We need to know what we are looking at when we see it. We need language for what Trump is, because without language, we freeze — we normalize, we rationalize, we wait — and the plane keeps descending.
The Reckoning
The parallel is exact. Lubitz was flagged. People in his chain of command had the information and did not act. Business considerations took priority over the safety of the passengers on that plane.
Trump was flagged — by journalists, by mental health professionals, by members of his own party, by the public record of his own behavior. And still, here we are.
Lubitz killed 156 people on one plane. Trump sits at the controls of the most powerful nation on earth.
Trump is unfit and poses increasing catastrophic risks every day he remains in office. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment exists for precisely this situation — to respond when a President is incapable of discharging the duties of the office.
If governmental action fails, the American people must mobilize. We have the power to demand accountability, restore stability, and prevent catastrophic harm.
As Trump and his cronies continue their reign, my warnings will continue coming. It is my duty to warn. That's my job. I'd be negligent to stand back and not do or say anything.
Daniel A. Linder is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, a Self and Relationships-based therapist and Addiction specialist with more than four decades of experience with individuals, couples and families.