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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Rhian Lubin

Dick Cheney’s doctor calls for investigation into Trump’s mental fitness

A leading doctor who treated the late Vice President Dick Cheney has called for an investigation into President Donald Trump’s mental fitness.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, claimed that Trump's extraordinary letter to Norway’s prime minister should “trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry.”

In Trump’s aggressive pursuit of the Danish territory of Greenland, he wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere in a letter leaked Monday, where Trump warned he “no longer feels an obligation to think purely of peace” after being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“This letter, and the fact that the president directed that it be distributed to other European countries, should trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness,” Reiner reacted in a post on X.

Trump has repeatedly boasted about “acing” cognitive exams and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously claimed the president “has nothing to hide” when it comes to his health.

Reiner was not the only prominent voice questioning the president’s mental fitness.

“The president of the United States is extremely mentally ill and it’s putting all of our lives at risk,” said Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona. “The 25th Amendment exists for a reason—we need to invoke it immediately.”

Fellow Democrats Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California also called to invoke the 25th Amendment in the wake of the letter. The amendment allows the president’s cabinet to remove them from office if enough members vote to do so.

Eliot A. Cohen, professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins and a former State Department counselor, said there was “only one possible explanation of Trump's note to the Norwegian prime minister: mental illness.”

Swedish economist Anders Aslund, chairman of the International Advisory Council at the Center for Social and Economic Research, asked, “Isn't the U.S. able to provide Trump with the necessary mental treatment?” in a social media post on X.

One of the AI images Trump posted on Truth Social, as critics claimed for an investigation into his mental fitness (@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)

“How can the republicans in the U.S. Congress accept that an obviously mentally ill person remains U.S. president?” Aslund added.

Responding previously to speculation over the president’s health, Leavitt said Trump “has nothing to hide, unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, who hid from the press and lied about his clear physical and mental decline.”

While some question Trump’s mental fitness, the president unleashed on European leaders in a series of Truth Social posts early Tuesday.

The president posted AI images of himself in the White House lecturing European leaders next to a map showing Greenland and Canada as American territory. Another showed him planting a U.S. flag in Greenland’s soil alongside Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump also threatened to slap France with 200 percent tariffs on French wine and cheese after he shared a private text message he received from President Emmanuel Macron, saying he “did not understand” what the president was doing when it came to Greenland.

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