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Donald Trump’s mental health – a matter of public interest

Nikki Haley: Trump aimed to ‘keep Kim on his toes’ with ‘nuclear button’ tweet, Guardian, Martin Pengelly, 8 Jan 18   US ambassador to UN defends president’s rhetoric on North Korea
Haley: ‘It’s not us that’s going to be destroyed, it’s you’

Bandy Lee: Trump’s mental health is a matter of public interest   Donald Trump’s tweet taunting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over the size of his “nuclear button” was meant to “keep Kim on his toes”, the US ambassador to the United Nations said on Sunday.

Rare progress has recently been made over the Korean standoff, with North and South agreeing to begin their first talks for two years on Tuesday in the South Korean side of the village of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone.The forthcoming Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang will dominate the agenda but officials have indicated other issues may also be discussed.Trump, however, showed a characteristic disregard for diplomatic niceties when he wrote on Tuesday: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times’.

“Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”The tweet was written the day before the Guardian published extracts of a book in which White House staffers question the president’s mental capacity for his job, setting off a political firestorm.In an opinion piece for the Guardian on Sunday, Bandy Lee, an assistant clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine who has briefed members of Congress on the risks associated with the president’s behaviour, wrote: “Trump views violence as a solution when he is stressed and desires to re-establish his power.

January 8, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA