Richard Painter, who was former president George W Bush’s ethics lawyer between the years of 2005 and 2007, said Mr Trump’s controversial national emergency declaration was “clearly illegal”. He also told news channel MSNBC it was a product of his questionable state of mind. Mr Painter said: “The president is not well at all mentally. I think he’s an extreme narcissist. “He has been denied what he wants, his wall, and he is having a hissy fit.
“He is out of control, and he will not take no for an answer from Congress. And he’s going do this. He is going to insist on doing it, he is going to tear the country apart.
“It’s unconstitutional, it’s illegal.
“He is going to do enormous damage to the Republican Party which is going to split right down the middle over this, and we really need to keep in mind that this is because the president is not well.”
Mr Painter is vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and filed a lawsuit against Mr Trump’s declaration, which was announced last week.
Mr Painter said: “He is not capable of doing the job. He does need to be removed under the 25th amendment, but he stocked his cabinet with people who are unwilling to do that, and Congress is apparently unwilling to even try to remove him through impeachment.”
Yesterday, 16 US states sued the Trump administration for his announcement of a national emergency, which will give the President power to gather taxpayers fund to build a wall to separate Mexico from the US at the border, which will cost $5.7billion (£4.4billion).
The move came after Congress refused to grant the President the eye-watering sum he demanded in funding for the barrier, which led to the 35-day government shutdown – the longest in US history late last year.
California attorney general Xavier Becerra said: “Today, on Presidents Day, we take President Trump to court to block his misuse of presidential power.
“We are suing President Trump to stop him from unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds lawfully set aside by Congress for the people of our states. For most of us, the Office of the Presidency is not a place for theatre.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has joined forces with a series of other nations to officially recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuelan president in an attempt to oust Nicolas Maduro, who he called a “Cuban puppet” in a speech yesterday.