All posts tagged "natalie harp"

Trump welcomed being ‘stalked’ by Natalie Harp in a way Mary Trump admits she’s never seen

Mary Trump has spent a decade studying her uncle's psychology, but Natalie Harp's relationship with him stands apart from anything she's seen.

The president's niece, a trained clinical psychologist, told host Joanna Coles on Wednesday's episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" that devoted White House aide Natalie Harp has "the qualities of a stalker" and that Trump has welcomed it.

"Natalie Harp is a different type entirely. There's something seriously wrong with her," Mary Trump said. "I think there's something psychologically wrong with her. She needs help. She has the qualities of a stalker. And it's the only case I've ever seen in which the stalking victim has welcomed being stalked."

Coles had asked about a remark attributed to Trump in which he said of Harp, "She'll never leave me. The others will leave me." Coles wondered whether that reflected a fear of abandonment, given how Trump treated his own father after Fred Trump developed Alzheimer's.

"Every single relationship Donald has is transactional," Mary Trump responded, pointing to "cracks in the inner circle," including press secretary Karoline Leavitt. "There are limits when people are sycophantic enablers. Even they have limits to the amount they are willing to be humiliated or have their lives in danger," she said.

Harp, she argued, is filling a void. "I think that is in part because Donald is not getting the attention he needs because nobody cares about him," she said. "Which makes sense, because he doesn't care about anybody, and she's willing to fill that role. And it is inappropriate. It's wrong. I think he's taking advantage. But nobody seems to have a problem with it."

She added that the double standard was glaring. "If a Democratic president, an 81-year-old Democratic president, was hanging out with a 35-year-old woman and spending more time with her than he did with anybody else in his family, I'm pretty sure there would be a problem," she said.

Coles also asked about Harp's friend, far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has flown with the president. "I think she's just very skilled at inserting herself. I find her vile," Mary Trump said, adding that any woman hoping to last around her uncle has to meet one more requirement. "If you're a woman who wants to stay in Donald's good graces, you have to be subservient."

Maggie Haberman flags new Natalie Harp detail while reporting on taxpayer-funded Trump ads

According to a New York Times report, President Donald Trump's favorite aide had a part in the backstory of the $20 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign praising him.

The Times investigation, co-written by Maggie Haberman, found that Trump personally told his budget director to find government money for the ads. It also described an Oval Office meeting on Aug. 7 where Natalie Harp showed the room the kind of images the president likes.

At the meeting, Trump met with Republican strategists, top political adviser James Blair and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Harp, whom the Times called "his ever-present assistant and provider of positive news about himself," was there too.

The strategists were waiting for Trump to approve super PAC spending for midterm candidates. "But during that meeting, the president was much more interested in looking at videos of himself," the Times reported.

Trump turned to Harp and asked her to show the group the imagery he prefers. She pulled up White House videos on her tablet: Trump in front of huge crowds, Trump next to Marine One, and Trump with fighter jets flying overhead.

One clip showed UFC president Dana White calling Trump "the toughest, most resilient person that I've ever met." The Times reported that Trump has repeated the quote "with delight" ever since.

A Trump-linked nonprofit later spent about $60,000 to air an ad with White's quote, mostly around Washington, where Trump was sure to see it. A few weeks after that, ads praising Trump started running nationwide, paid for by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Harp, 35, has come under growing scrutiny for her role in deciding what news reaches Trump. Last weekend, photographers caught her showing Trump something on her laptop during the Texas-Tennessee football game.

Trump gushes over 'beautiful' younger aide onstage as Natalie Harp looks on

President Donald Trump fawned over a younger aide's looks at an Oklahoma rally Thursday as devoted aide Natalie Harp looked on.

Trump brought 31-year-old communications adviser Margo Martin, an Oklahoma native, onto the stage in Durant, the Daily Beast reported. He then turned his attention to her appearance.

Martin "is known for a number of things," the president told the crowd. "I can't mention one, because if I do, my political career will be over."

He said it anyway. "You can never say that a woman is beautiful. If you say a woman is beautiful, that's the end of your political career. But, I'll say it anyway," Trump said, before declaring, "She is a beautiful woman, inside and out."

Gesturing toward Martin's parents, he went on, "I see why she's good-looking, actually. You know, I believe in the racehorse theory. Fast horses, right? Great mom and dad."

Harp was at the rally too, Hugh Dougherty pointed out on the "Daily Beast Podcast," where he and Joanna Coles picked apart the moment. "He brought [Martin] up, he hugged her, he talked about how beautiful she is. We know that that's the language of Trump," Dougherty said.

He noted that photos surfaced earlier in the week appearing to show Trump shouting at Harp, and that Martin "has regularly been mistaken for Melania."

"I actually feel for Natalie Harp watching that," Coles said.

Coles suggested the rally could reflect a deliberate tactic. "It seems that he's trying to pit them against each other, which is something we know he does with his Cabinet," she said, pointing to JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.

Both women have worked in the White House since the first day of Trump's second term. Each earns $150,000 a year, and each received a $45,000 cash gift from Trump, apparently for the holidays, the Washington Post reported last month. Harp has called Trump her "Guardian and Protector in this Life" in letters published by the Daily Beast.

Asked for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung shot back. "Joanna shouldn't be so jealous, it's not a good look for her," he said.

Trump took Natalie Harp's tablet to watch videos of himself during strategy meeting: NYT

While President Donald Trump's own advisers waited for him to approve midterm campaign spending, he instead spent an August strategy session asking his aide to pull up footage of himself on her tablet, according to a New York Times report based on interviews with 12 insiders.

The August 7 Oval Office meeting included Republican strategists, top adviser James Blair, and chief of staff Susie Wiles, gathered to discuss super PAC spending as GOP campaigns grew nervous Trump might not open his checkbook in time. Instead, Trump turned to aide Natalie Harp, known for feeding him flattering coverage of himself, and asked her to show footage he liked: crowds, Marine One, fighter jets overhead.

One clip featured UFC's Dana White calling him "the toughest, most resilient person that I've ever met," a line Trump still brings up with visible enthusiasm.

That meeting appears to have set in motion a taxpayer-funded, $20 million ad campaign glorifying Trump's presidency, routed through the Department of Homeland Security rather than his own political operation. Sources say Trump personally directed Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to find the money, with OMB and White House counsel signing off on using DHS funds, and Trump and Wiles discussing the arrangement directly with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

On September 19, OMB shifted the $20 million from Customs and Border Protection into a budget line labeled "One Big Beautiful Bill Commemorative Events." CBP awarded the contract to Maryland firm LMD the next day.

At least four ads have aired so far, costing roughly $5.5 million and climbing. One set Trump imagery to a song whose artist has publicly objected; another reused footage from a 2024 campaign video, undercutting claims these are neutral PSAs rather than repurposed campaign material. Unlike typical government ads, these simply read "Paid for by the U.S. government."

Asked about it Wednesday, Trump brushed off concerns.

"If somebody said that that's wrong, I'll gladly pay the money," Trump said. "But these are ads for the country. I'm not promoting a candidate. I'm not promoting myself because I'm not running for office. I'm promoting the country."

The White House called the spots reminders for Americans to love their country, pointing to past presidents' use of similar messaging. The Government Accountability Office has previously found anti-propaganda violations under both Obama and Bush, albeit tied to policy campaigns rather than ads centered on the president himself.

It's not the first costly ad campaign to dog the administration. Kristi Noem fronted a similar DHS push in 2025, putting her on horseback at Mount Rushmore at a cost north of $140 million, a campaign Trump soured on and later cited in replacing her.

Trump caught with mouth 'agape' due to Natalie Harp distraction during game

More than 100,000 fans at Neyland Stadium were watching Tennessee take on top-ranked Texas on Saturday. Photos from the game show that for at least a few moments, President Donald Trump was looking at his aide Natalie Harp's laptop instead, according to The Daily Beast.

Photographers from Reuters, AFP and Getty Images caught Harp, 35, holding up a laptop and pointing at the screen for Trump in Knoxville, Tennessee. In the photos, Trump, 80, leans over Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) to see it.

Independent journalist Aaron Rupar pointed out that Trump and Hagerty's mouths appeared "agape" in one image, The Daily Beast reported.

It isn't clear what was on the screen. But Harp has a reputation as the president's personal media monitor, and she has been called Trump's "human printer" because she reportedly keeps feeding him positive articles.

The Washington Post has reported that she brings Trump printed copies of news stories and social media posts. CBS has reported that Trump often dictates Truth Social posts to her, and she types and publishes them.

That role has drawn more scrutiny in recent months. Harp has been described as one of Trump's most trusted aides, and critics worry about how much she controls what information reaches him.

"Everyone in the world knows how much Trump craves attention, especially televised attention," economist Robert Reich wrote on Instagram earlier this week. "He views much of what he and his regime do through the lenses of television."

The Daily Beast reported Trump left the game at halftime.

His visit had already made news before the photos came out. Videos shared online appeared to show fans booing when he came on the stadium's big screen. Earlier in the week, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had warned that Trump's movements around the stadium could knock out the teams' headsets.

Marco Rubio 'infuriated' as he's blocked from firing scandal-plagued Trump aide: report

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly angry that he can't get rid of a scandal-plagued aide with ties to President Donald Trump's closest aides.

According to a Thursday report by The Daily Mail, Rubio wants to get rid of Gavin Wax, the chief of staff in the State Department's Washington headquarters, but he's been able to stay on because of an "obsessive loyalty" to Trump and a close relationship with White House aides. The Daily Mail reported that Wax's most direct line to Trump is through Natalie Harp, the president's devoted aide.

Wax is in hot water after hosting Serbian right-wing, pro-Kremlin politicians for lunch in an executive dining room despite warnings from career State Department officials not to do so, The Daily Mail reported. Wax saved himself with a "Hail Mary" move, an anonymous source told The Daily Mail.

The move was reportedly to call Boris Epshteyn, Trump's personal senior counselor, the anonymous source told The Daily Mail, but Wax's "most direct line" is through Harp, another source said. However, The Daily Mail wasn't able to confirm that Harp had any role in saving Wax's job.

The Daily Mail reported that five senior Trump administration sources did confirm that Epshteyn responded to Wax's appeal and took his issue of saving his job to Trump.

Even though the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and senior State Department officials had coordinated with the State Department on a plan to place Wax on leave, a single advisor overruled the plan and kept Wax in place.

"It signals to everyone else in the department that if you have the ear of someone close to the president, you are untouchable no matter what you do," an anonymous State Department official told The Daily Mail.

However, the decision to keep Wax in place "allegedly infuriated Marco Rubio," who "has since made clear that Wax cannot stay in his department," The Daily Mail wrote, citing three anonymous senior sources.

State Department spokesperson Dylan Johnson denied the reporting about Rubio when The Daily Mail asked, however. "This is false and never happened," Johnson said.

'Freaky' Natalie Harp report unsettles observers: 'Please tell me this isn't real'

The fully exposed letters of President Donald Trump's aide Natalie Harp are drawing unease about how she writes him.

On Friday, online critics reacted to Harp's letters that were released the previous evening by Trump biographer Michael Wolff and The Daily Beast, which produces his podcast Inside Trump's Head. Harp has been in the spotlight lately after Sen. Jon Ossoff called the president out for preferring to "travel with Natalie Harp" rather than do his job, which drew scrutiny to her relationship with Trump.

"You are all that matters to me," one line, highlighted in a post by HuffPost editor Philip Lewis, read. "I don't want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life."

Ron Filipkowski, the editor-in-chief of the political news network MeidasTouch, pointed out that she randomly capitalizes words the way Trump does and related it to how she reportedly drafts Trump's Truth Social posts.

"The syntax and random capitalizations in Natalie Harp's letters to Trump are a Rosetta Stone that can be used to determine which he wrote and which are her writing him," Filipkowski posted on X.

"Y'all, this woman isn't well," wrote former GOP strategist Rick Wilson.

"Lots to unpack in this Natalie Harp letter," ex-Trump White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews reacted. "But this line in particular stood out to me: 'I was approaching burnout, and starting to envy those whose only 'job' seems to be to talk with you, and look pretty.' Lol."

"This is some freaky stuff," Democratic political commentator Harry Sisson warned. "Anyone with a brain can see that."

Podcaster and political extremism researcher Jared Holt described Harp's letter as "ten times scarier than a death threat. If anyone ever sent me something like this I would seek a restraining order as soon as humanly possible and be legitimately scared for my safety."

"Please tell me this isn't real," CNN contributor Ana Navarro-Cárdenas pleaded on X.

Progressive political commentator Molly Jong-Fast joked, "There's no chance that Donald Trump made it to the end of this letter."

Creepy new details emerge as Trump biographer exposes Natalie Harp's letters in full

A biographer of President Donald Trump unveiled a copy of Natalie Harp's full letters that alarmed insiders.

In a Thursday episode of Inside Trump's Head, Michael Wolff shared that he obtained a full copy of Harp's letters to Trump after their trip to a Scottish golf course in May 2023. Excerpts of Harp's letters had been shared by Vanity Fair and The New York Times, but The Daily Beast, which produces Inside Trump's Head, published her letters in full for the first time on Thursday.

"I want things to always be right between us," Harp wrote to Trump in one letter. "I also know I've been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep and only catching a couple hours at a time). I haven't been myself, dwelling on the Past, and the pain of losing my dad."

"Please, when I fail, will you tell me?" Harp wrote in another letter. "You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more."

Wolff reacted to the contents of the letters, which he also shared on his Substack, Howl. The Thursday episode of Inside Trump's Head also shared a video of Harp on one of Trump's campaign planes, "tapping her feet," co-host Joanna Coles described. "She looks very comfortable, as if she's well and truly at home."

"They were taken by people within the campaign who believed that this, that her presence there, was really strange," Wolff said. "That's why they're taking videos of, theoretically, one of their colleagues."

He noted that the tone of her letters alarmed people on Trump's campaign.

"She's not acting like a subordinate. She is acting like a lover, like someone in a personal relationship," Wolff said. "That's what is confusing here and what's problematic and certainly problematic from the point of view of his professional staff, which is why I am in possession of these letters, because they recognized, 'Oh my God, this is a real problem.'"

Trump insiders secretly sabotaging Scott Jennings' shot at replacing Leavitt: report

Allies of President Donald Trump are trying to "derail" conservative commentator Scott Jennings' chances of winning the press secretary job.

According to a Thursday article by the New York Post, Trump's "fiercest allies" are trying to ruin Jennings because of his longstanding ties to his mentor, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Trump is still trying to fill the post that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will vacate at the end of the month.

"It's not going to be him," an anonymous source close to the administration told The Post.

The Post noted that Jennings met with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles this past weekend, but a senior administration official said that no clear favorite has emerged for the job.

"It's an open book," the senior administration official said. "There are no favorites or preconceived ideas."

However, reporting by The Post framed the indecision as Trump insiders trying to sabotage Jennings' chances over his ties to McConnell. Jennings, a Kentucky native, has talked about his relationship with McConnell in light of the senior senator's extended absence.

The Post also noted that Jennings aligned himself with McConnell's position about holding Trump responsible for the violence at the Capitol on January 6. Jennings wrote a CNN op-ed declaring, "Trump caused this insurrection with his lies and conspiracy theories about the election process being rigged."

When The Post reached out to Jennings for comment, he responded with a gif of Patrick Swayze's character from the 1989 film "Road House," with the caption, "Opinions vary."

Jennings recently took the Trump position when responding to Sen. Jon Ossoff's comments about how the president prefers to "travel with Natalie Harp" instead of doing his job. In a fiery CNN debate, Jennings insisted that Harp doesn't deserve to be attacked because she doesn't have a public-facing role, but he refused to denounce Trump's attacks on women, including female reporters.

Harp herself has emerged as a possible dark-horse candidate for Leavitt's job, and insiders have also said that Trump would prefer to hire a man for the job, while others report that Trump wouldn't mind holding off on hiring until after the midterms.

Trump weighs press secretary shakeup with new hiring rule in mind: report

President Donald Trump is telling advisers he wants a man to replace outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, according to NOTUS.

Trump has told close advisers he would prefer a man for the job after four female press secretaries across his two terms, two anonymous sources familiar with the conversation told the outlet. The pick would be meant to head off comparisons with Leavitt, who plans to leave the White House at the end of August, according to reporting by NOTUS.

Trump has shown interest in Scott Jennings, a conservative media pundit widely reported to have been the frontrunner for a bit. One source told NOTUS that Trump is not sold on the idea, however. Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary under President George W. Bush, has also been floated, according to NOTUS.

The reporting adds a new wrinkle to a search that has quietly consumed the West Wing since Leavitt announced last week that she would step down at the end of the month, which was just a month after she returned from maternity leave. She cited a desire to spend more time with family and plans to stay on as an outside senior adviser.

Trump has said he is in no rush to fill the role, according to one source who spoke to NOTUS. Instead, the White House could lean on the rotating briefing format used during Leavitt's maternity leave from late April to July, when Vice President JD Vance and Cabinet members such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the podium.

Another dark-horse candidate has surfaced inside the West Wing. A person close to the White House predicted that the attention swirling around Trump's devoted aide Natalie Harp could push her into the job.

"She was on OANN," the source said, referring to her time as a host on the One America News Network. The source added that the media is going to "make her press secretary."