Marking the first anniversary of his second term, Trump told reporters he has signed an executive order to “bring back mental institutions and insane asylums,” a move he framed as a way to “get the people off the streets” in coverage of the announcement by Breitbart News. The order directs federal agencies to help states reopen or build locked psychiatric facilities for people with severe mental illness, positioning institutionalization as a response to homelessness and visible distress in big‑city downtowns. Trump has repeatedly argued that states like New York and California “made a mistake” when they closed large state hospitals decades ago and that cities have been paying the price on their streets ever since.
Supporters see the move as a long‑overdue shift back toward providing secure beds for people who cycle between homelessness, emergency rooms, and jail without getting sustained care. The executive order encourages states to expand court‑ordered treatment and assisted outpatient programs, leaning into a more coercive model of mental‑health policy that prioritizes public order as much as individual autonomy. Critics, including many professional organizations, warn that without strong safeguards, new institutions risk repeating the abuses and neglect that led to the original deinstitutionalization push in the late 20th century.
Complicating the picture, Trump’s broader budget plans would cut funding for community‑based services and consolidate key federal mental‑health agencies, moves that experts say could hollow out alternatives to institutional care. Groups like the American Psychological Association argue that building or reopening large facilities while reducing support for outpatient clinics, crisis lines, and housing programs could simply warehouse people instead of treating them. The fight now is not only over whether the U.S. should bring back psychiatric institutions, but over what kind of mental‑health system this administration is actually building around them.