The past two weeks show an increase in his extreme behavior and statements. Is it time for the 25th Amendment?
By Bill Eddy / Substack / October 12, 2026
In the past two weeks, several events demonstrate the escalation of President Trump’s emotional, rather than logical, decision-making and manner of speech—and it’s dangers. Most human decision-making combines emotions and logic, but Trump is impulsive and almost completely dominated by his emotions without thought of the consequences. This includes a lot of projection, which means that he feels that others are thinking and acting the way he is actually thinking and acting. This is leading to more and more unstable and dangerous behavior which must be stopped.
On September 27 he released a dark election-type TV ad with him walking down a hallway with a voice-over warning of a final battle to protect the country against “globalists, warmongers, communists, Marxists, and fascists.” It says this was “Paid for by the U.S. Government,” in other words paid for by taxpayers (and should be illegal). In black-and-white it is clearly meant to target the emotions of his followers, triggering fear of evil villains and showing him as a great hero protecting the country. It is a perfect example of “right brain politics,” which I explained in my Substack post on August 24.
Yet he is unable to connect the dots that the majority of the country now think of him as the biggest “warmonger” because of his disastrous war of choice against Iran. He is also the person most often referred to as a “fascist.” His own former White House Chief of Staff, General John F. Kelly, applied this term to him and his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said he is “fascist to the core.” He is blinded by his projections which make him attack others when the danger is inside himself.
Impulsive Reversals
On October 3rd, in a video on Truth Social, he suddenly reversed his years-long campaign against voting by mail. “Vote early, vote by mail, or vote in person on Election Day,” he said. For years he was intent on hurting Democrats by preventing mail-in ballots. He suddenly seems to have realized that many Republicans also vote by mail and that his fearmongering and claims of election fraud might discourage them from voting.
On October 9th, he impulsively struck a deal in a phone call with Vladimir Putin. It’s for Russia to provide over 300,000 tons of diesel oil in an effort to reduce prices that he himself drove up with the War on Iran. This is a dramatic reversal from the sweeping sanctions law against Russia that he signed just last month to reduce the oil and gas revenues Putin is using to fund his War on Ukraine. Trump may have impulsively caused the U. S. to violate his own law to impress his strongman father figure.
“Let Them Take Out San Diego”
On October 5th, in a speech at a campaign rally, he said in reference to his War on Iran: “They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego. That’s — this is a very small price to pay.” That the audience cheered Trump’s comment reinforces the danger that such speech triggers intense emotions. Leaders of both parties strongly criticized his remarks. Governor Gavin Newsom immediately called for the 25th Amendment to be used to remove Trump from office: “Donald Trump is mentally ill. TIME FOR THE 25TH!”
Trump is feeding dangerous polarization and potential for individual acts of violence. Remember when he invited Russia to hack Hilary Clinton’s emails years ago—and they did. He called Covid the “China virus”—and Asian citizens in the U.S. were attacked. He disparaged Nancy Pelosi—and someone broke into her house and attacked her husband fracturing his skull. And remember his provocative speech on January 6th. Who says his comments about “taking out” Los Angeles and San Diego are harmless?
On October 6th, as reported by CNN: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership told agents nationwide on Tuesday to increase immigration arrests by 1,000 more people daily, returning to a previous goal of 3,000 daily arrests, according to two sources familiar with the verbal directive.” Not only is this directive ruthless and unwarranted (because substantial research shows immigrants commit less crime than natural-born citizens), but it also undermines Republican candidates he wants to get elected on November 3rd. In his selfish, emotion-driven world, looking like a hero by dominating harmless immigrants is more important than supporting his own political party.
He’s Getting Worse
Overall, Trump’s emotional speech and decision-making are getting worse. He may fit the definition of a leader with malignant narcissism; a diagnosis identified over sixty years ago by the famous psychologist Erich Fromm. He used this term because, unlike other stable forms of narcissism, it grows worse over a lifetime, as he described in his book The Heart of Man: It’s Genius for Good and Evil:
“The Egyptian Pharaohs, the Roman Caesars, the Borgias, Hitler, Stalin, Trujillo—they all show similar features. They have attained absolute power; their word is the ultimate judgment of everything, including life and death; there seems to be no limit to their capacity to do what they want…. It is a madness that tends to grow in the lifetime of the afflicted person. The more he tries to be god, the more he isolates himself from the human race; this isolation makes him more frightened, everybody becomes his enemy, and in order to stand the resulting fright he has to increase his power, his ruthlessness, and his narcissism.”
For example, through executive orders Trump has been increasing his power; with the war on Iran and ICE on America’s streets he has been increasing his ruthlessness; and his narcissism is increasingly evident in his grandiose and reckless statements. We need to stop looking at each issue on its own and realize that all of this is part of a very dangerous pattern.
If there was a time for the 25TH Amendment to be implemented, now is the time. He should be immediately assessed by mental health professionals for a possible Narcissistic Personality Disorder based on the diagnostic manual of mental disorders (the DSM) which includes “fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance” and “lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.” He appears out of touch with the real world of thinking and consequences. Based on his recent behavior and statements, his mental status presents a clear and present danger to the nation, the world, and to Los Angeles and San Diego in particular. It’s time.
Thanks for reading
