Author and journalist Kurt Andersen — a novelist and veteran magazine writer who co-founded Spy magazine — told The Daily Beast that White House aide Natalie Harp may be President Donald Trump's most "unwell" staff member, citing what he described as her uncanny, possibly "mentally disordered" devotion to him.

Harp first entered Trump's orbit during the period between his presidential terms and has since become one of his closest White House assistants, wielding considerable influence over the information he sees and the messages posted on his social media accounts. Her devotion has also raised considerable alarms, with many observers likening it to an obsession — particularly as the various letters she has written to him continue to emerge, each newly surfaced document adding to a public record of devotion that, as Andersen notes, remains largely unexplained.

Appearing Sunday as a guest on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Andersen discussed the situation surrounding Harp with host Joanna Coles, explaining why the uncertainties about her life that make her an alarming political staffer would make her a "rich fictional character" (The Daily Beast's reporting on Harp).

"She is a rich fictional character only because the whole nature of her motives and intentions are unclear," Andersen said. "Except for like, whoa, she's like a stalker who got the job."

The literary read is familiar ground for Andersen, whose 2017 book Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire examined what he describes as America's decades-long drift into make-believe — an argument that placed Trump-era politics squarely within that tradition.

Andersen argued that part of Trump's admiration for Harp comes from the sense that her feelings toward him are among the only authentic emotions he receives from his staff members, even as he "demands sycophancy" from all of them.

"He demands sycophancy from everyone, although it really seems and I really believe that in almost all of those cases, he knows it's transactional," Andersen explained. "He knows it's inauthentic because his own feelings are inauthentic, and he can't imagine authentic feelings because he has none other than 'I want [attention]' or 'pay attention to me,' you know. But in her case, from his talk about her and that one amazing line in Regime Change, where she's quoted as saying to his other aides, like, she's the only one that really cares about me, right? You'll leave me, you'll all leave me. She cares about me as much as my children and wife, you know. And his children and his wife don't seem to care about him."

Andersen also suggested that this overwhelming devotion to Trump could stem from potential mental problems, making her the most genuinely "unwell" member of his administration.

"I think she is more in a certain way unwell than the rest of them because she's so, you know, devoted in an uncanny, and as I say, maybe mentally disordered way," he said.