Top Trump official prepared White House staff with a book about how mentally ill people can be effective leaders

• Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney recommended to his colleagues a book suggesting there may be a link between mental illness and effective leadership, according to a new book on the Trump administration.
• According to ABC chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, Mulvaney used quotes from a book by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the Tufts University School of Medicine.
• Ghaemi's book says "in at least one vitally important circumstance insanity produces good results and sanity is a problem."
• Ghaemi told Karl that "Trump fits into my thesis perfectly."
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Shortly after becoming President Donald Trump's acting White House chief of staff, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney recommended to his colleagues a book suggesting there may be a link between mental illness and leadership, according to a new book on the Trump administration.

After becoming the acting chief of staff in January 2019 - a role known as "the Gatekeeper" because they typically manage a president's schedule and whom they meet with - Mulvaney corralled senior staffers at a weekend retreat at Camp David, according to ABC chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl's new book, "Front Row at the Trump Show."

Mulvaney reportedly used a quote from the New York Times bestselling book "A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness" by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the Tufts University School of Medicine.

The book explores several world leaders and their mental facilities, including Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Adolf Hitler - and theorizes that some of them exhibited mentally ill tendencies, while others were sane.

According to Ghaemi's book, "in at least one vitally important circumstance insanity produces good results and sanity is a problem."

"In times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones," he wrote.

"Decisions seem easy; no guilt, no doubt, just do it. The trouble is not in starting things, but in finishing them; with so much to do and little time, it's easy to get distracted," Ghaemi wrote in his book.

Ghaemi, who wrote the book before Trump declared his candidacy in the 2016 US presidential election, told Karl in an interview that "Trump fits into my thesis perfectly."

"I believe that he clearly has mild manic symptoms all the time, as part of his personality," Ghaemi told Karl.

"These symptoms consist of decreased need for sleep (a core feature) with high physical energy (including high sexual drive), talkativeness, distractibility, high sociability, and high self-esteem (often focused on by critics as 'narcissism')," Ghaemi added, "along with being prone to impulsive decisions or behavior (typically sexual indiscretions and impulsive spending)."

However, Ghaemi argued that during a time of noncrisis, "those leaders are less effective than normal leaders, especially because of the negative risks of manic traits (being too impulsive, hubristic, and unrealistic)."

Ghaemi also warned that there were exceptions to the personality trait during a time of crisis - exceptions that did not necessarily result in prudent decision-making.

"Some people with manic-depressive illness are unrealistic (even psychotic), unempathic, and unresilient," Ghaemi said in his book. "We shouldn't romanticize this condition; in its most extreme forms, it is highly disabling and dangerous."

By many news accounts, Mulvaney took a loose approach in bringing about order in the White House; and rather than attempting to regulate Trump's thought process like his predecessor, Mulvaney executed on the president's impulses.

He succeeded retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, served as Trump's acting chief of staff for roughly 15 months before being replaced by Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, in March.