In 2017, Lee organized a conference at Yale on professional ethics surrounding the mental health of Donald Trump, with major luminaries of psychiatry such as Robert Jay Lifton and Judith Lewis Herman. She withheld her views at the conference,[7] but later she harshly criticized the American Psychiatric Association for what she said was a modification of the ethical guideline called the Goldwater rule, in order to silence concerns professional peers raised about the Trump presidency.[8] In March 2017, the association had reaffirmed the Goldwater rule and explained that it restricts comments related to the mental health of public figures without their consent or evaluation.[9] Lee says this was an alarming "amplification" of the rule which prompted her [10] to convening the conference the next month,[11] and later in the year editing The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a book of essays warning about the dangers of Trump's mental instability that became a New York Times bestseller. She donated all revenues from the book to the public good to remove conflicts of interest and continued to collaborate with ethics specialists to keep with medical standards.[12] Nevertheless, in 2020, Yale University let go of her for breaking the Goldwater rule in her evaluations of Trump.[13] Lee had held a voluntary "clinical" position which is non-tenured. Lee says that 85 % of Yale's medical faculty are untenured. Lee sued Yale for violating her academic freedom,[14] but the suit was dismissed in August 2022.[15]
耶鲁大学1名精神病学教授曾在推特发文，质疑前总统特朗普“精神不稳定”，其支持者也患有“共同精神病”后被校方解雇，当事人入禀法院要求复职，但诉讼被康州法庭驳回。法官表示，涉案留言令校方怀疑当事人的专业资格，也有权终止雇用合约。
综合《纽约邮报》、MSN新闻及英国《每日邮报》报道，原告人班迪．李（Bandy Lee）事发前，已在耶鲁义务任职17年，2年前因为推文引发风波而被辞退后，到了去年提出诉讼，质疑自己遭校方不当解雇，言论自由权利也被侵犯，毕竟自己身为精神疾病专家，有权向公众解释总统的精神状况。
班迪．李表示自己虽在耶鲁没有受薪，但工作有助她享有福利和全球同行之间的知名度，因此辞职蒙受损失。对此康州地方法庭上月30 日判案时，采纳耶鲁校方的说法，驳回了原告方诉讼。
据悉班迪．李历年来一直批评特朗普，曾在耶鲁的会议上质疑，特朗普的心理问题影响全国，而且对民主构成威胁，其发言后来被编入2017年出版、名为《特朗普的危险案例：27 位精神病学家和心理健康专家评估总统》的书中。另外，她也于2019年去信参院司法委员会，称特朗普在首次弹劾调查期间显露“妄想症迹象”。
真正让班迪．李惹上麻烦的是在2019年，她在推文中指责特朗普的律师德尚维茨（Alan Dershowitz）“感染了特朗普的症状”，特朗普的追随者换患上“共同精神病”，而且此病会严重蔓延。毕业于耶鲁的德尚维茨翌年1月致函校方，指班迪．李严重违反了美国心理学会（APA）的道德规范，要求校方给予纪律处分。根据APA规定，精神科医生除非获得许可或经过诊断，否则评论公众人物的心智有违操守。此后校方不再与班迪．李续约，理由是对方未经诊断，甚至未与特朗普接触，就擅自议论对方的精神状态，令人质疑其判断力、专业精神和教学资格。