Natalie Harp, a 35-year-old blonde with a slender silhouette, controls access to the US president, acting as a unique channel of information, completely outside the usual hierarchical chain at the White House.
Although she speaks rarely, Harp is a constant presence alongside Trump: she stands just outside the frame of the camera during events in the Oval Office, accompanies the president on his travels across the country and abroad, and drafts his social media posts, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Natalie Harp earns a salary of $150,000, paid by taxpayers. Her role carries a dual title: special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president. At work, she tends to be a more reserved person. However, even in the West Wing of the White House, where loyalty to the president seems limitless, her demonstrations of devotion have unsettled some of her colleagues, as reported by The Washington Post.
For Democrats, Harp is one of the people who facilitates the president's work. For Republicans, she is Trump's "gatekeeper." A message sent at the right moment to Harp can pave the way to Trump, offering both established lobbyists and marginal figures the opportunity to meet with the most powerful man in the world.
How the blonde from the White House came into the spotlight
Public interest in Natalie Harp exploded after it was revealed last week that she was one of the few lucky people who accompanied the president, crammed into a supply container of the presidential aircraft Air Force One, to be urgently evacuated from Turkey amid the threat of an Iranian attack.
This week, she became the target of a political attack launched by Jon Ossoff, the Democratic senator from Georgia, who said about Trump: "He doesn't want to do his job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie in that flying palace – apparently defenseless – gifted by the Emir of Qatar."
The fact that the senator specifically targeted Natalie Harp triggered an extremely vehement reaction from many of Trump's supporters. White House advisors, lawmakers, conservative influencers, and at least one cabinet member rushed to defend her honor on the X platform. Accusations of sexism from the right and criticism of exaggerated sensitivity from the left emerged. Trump avoided responding directly when a CNN reporter asked him about Ossoff's comments. However, a social media account managed by the administration later attacked the reporter in unusually personal terms, referring to her children.
The commotion created drew even more attention to this slender woman, who rarely appears in public and has long fascinated and confounded those in the president's circle, as reported by The New York Times.
In constant contact with the president
Harp spends more time with Trump than any other advisor, according to current and former administration officials. She works at a desk right next to the Oval Office. During meetings, Harp can often be seen next to Trump, with a laptop and phones at hand to quickly provide the president with any contacts or information he needs, officials cited by WSJ said.
The shortest path to reach something on the president's desk is often through Harp. A person close to the White House stated that Harp's mobile phone number is even more valuable than Trump's.
NYT writes that Natalie never takes time off, not even on Sundays. She has her reserved spot on Marine One helicopter. She exchanges messages with world leaders on behalf of the president. She stays up late with him, drafting social media posts. She speaks rarely in front of cameras, yet she is always there, a constant presence, with a wide smile and her gaze fixed on the president.
White House officials say that Harp remains in constant contact with the president, participating in meetings in the "Situation Room," in the Oval Office, and in discussions aboard Air Force One, in his private office.
Although all executive staff work for the president, Harp reports exclusively to Trump, to no one else, according to quotes from WSJ. At times, she has caused dissatisfaction among White House advisors by immediately implementing Trump's directives without consulting with the chief of staff, the communications office, or the national security team.
Trump's "human printer"
The unique power Trump confers on her says a lot about how he exercises his presidential function, underlines The New York Times.
As long as Harp is by his side, he benefits from an unchecked flow of information – some of it toxic and counterproductive, at least in the view of many of his other advisors. She provides materials "fished" from the "undergrounds" of social media (such as the video he posted depicting the Obamas as monkeys) and offers him a perspective from outside the official circles of Washington, towards which he has always shown distrust.
Natalie is dubbed the "human printer" because she accompanies the president carrying a portable printer, so she can provide him with information in printed format.
On the other hand, she is an endless source of optimism – a "gushing well" of positive energy – meant to boost his morale in difficult times. She believes – or at least vehemently claims to believe – that he unequivocally won the 2020 elections, as reported by the New York daily.
The cancer story
Before becoming a member of Trump's inner circle, Harp presented herself as an independent entrepreneur. After being diagnosed with stage 2 bone cancer in the early 2010s, she repeatedly stated that a law signed by Trump during his first term saved her life, granting her access to an experimental treatment.
"We all know the story of the Good Samaritan. But what you don't know is that I was that forgotten person on the side of the road… left to die from cancer," Harp recounted at an event she attended with the president in 2019. "But then, a man outside the system – my Good Samaritan, President Donald J. Trump – saw me there and didn't pass by. He stopped."
In 2020, experts told The Washington Post that it was unlikely that the law had any impact on her case. The drug she claimed to have accessed thanks to Trump had already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at the time of administration. Specialists noted that she could have obtained the treatment even without resorting to the "Right to Try," a procedure that allows access to FDA-unapproved drugs.
Harp's story caught Trump's attention and secured her a spot at the 2020 Republican National Convention, where she reiterated that he saved her life.
Between 2020 and 2022, Harp was a host on the conservative network One America News, where she praised the president and his policies on her show, "The Real Story."
In 2022, The Post reported that some old collaborators were disturbed by Harp's influence; she was almost always by Trump's side and responded very attentively to his need for constant praise. "Like other team members, I spend time with him," Harp defended herself in an email response in 2022, adding that she holds "great respect" for Trump.
Natalie, the most loyal among Trump's "girls"
During the period between Trump's presidential terms, Harp was part of the small circle of supporters who worked for him at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Other collaborators distanced themselves from the president after his first term, following the two impeachment proceedings and numerous criminal investigations against him. Additionally, Harp was an advisor in Trump's 2020 campaign and a collaborator in his 2024 campaign.
Now Natalie Harp fulfills, to some extent, a role that Trump has always sought, even back when he was a real estate developer in Manhattan. Back then, there were always secretaries just outside his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, ready to intervene promptly at any request, whom he generically referred to as "the girls," writes The Washington Post.
In the book "Regime Change", written by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, it is revealed how Trump used to tell people that Harp is the only person who loves him as much as his wife and children. Everyone else on his team will leave to make money, Trump would say, but Harp will never abandon him.
Her devotion to the president sometimes crossed a sensitive boundary for some White House advisers. "You are all that matters to me," Harp wrote to Trump in 2023, according to sources cited by the New York Times.
T.D.