Natalie Harp

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Natalie Harp
P20250909DT-0258 President Donald Trump participates in the swearing-in ceremony for U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John Arrigo (cropped).jpg
Harp in 2025
Executive Assistant to the President
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 20, 2025

Natalie Joy Harp is an American political aide and former television presenter who has served as executive assistant to the president since 2025.

Contents

Harp graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University and from Liberty University in 2015 with an MBA. In 2019, she rose to prominence on Fox News after praising president Donald Trump for signing into law a federal right-to-try law that she claimed allowed her to access experimental treatments, saving her life. Trump invited Harp to serve as a member of the advisory board for his 2020 presidential campaign and to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Harp began working for One America News Network, a far-right television channel, as a presenter in 2020, but left in April 2022. She later became an aide for Trump, exerting influence over his communications.

In January 2025, Trump named Harp as his executive assistant to the president.

Early life and education (1991–2015)

Natalie Joy Harp was born to a devoutly Christian family. [1] Harp's father is an estate agent who founded a consultancy for travel companies. [2] She graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2012 and from Liberty University in 2015 with an MBA. [3]

Career

Trump work and Republican National Committee speech (2019–2020)

By 2017, Harp had become vocally critical of the healthcare in the United States after she began suffering from health issues, particularly chronic pain and complications incurred by a medical error involving intravenous therapy for stage II bone cancer. [4] She praised president Donald Trump for signing into law a federal right-to-try law that she claimed allowed her to access experimental treatments, saving her life, on Fox News in 2019; [1] according to experts who spoke to The Washington Post , Harp's description of her treatment casts doubt on the veracity of her claim. [4] Trump invited Harp to speak at the Republican National Convention in August 2020 [1] in which she gave a speech comparing Trump to George Bailey, the protagonist of It's a Wonderful Life (1946), [5] leading to criticism from the family of the character's actor, Jimmy Stewart. [6] By that month, she had become a member of the advisory board for Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. [7]

One America News Network and return to Trump (2020–2024)

Trump and Harp traveling to watch the 2025 US Open - Men's singles P20250907DT-0197 President Donald Trump attends the U.S. Open Men's Championship.jpg
Trump and Harp traveling to watch the 2025 US Open – Men's singles

Harp began working for One America News Network, a far-right television channel, as a presenter in 2020, [8] promoting false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. [9] In April 2022, she left the network amid an exodus after DirecTV refused to carry the channel. [10] Months later, she became an aide for Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign. [11] She often accompanied Trump when he played golf, bringing a printer and a laptop to show him articles; [11] Harp's use of a printer, which began from Trump's preference for paper news, [12] led to her being given the nickname of the "human printer". [1] She has additionally posted to Truth Social on Trump's behalf, including a post that announced he had received a target letter in the election obstruction case, surprising other aides. [11] According to The Bulwark , Harp had reposted a video of faux newspaper headlines in May 2024 hypothesizing a Trump victory that included the words "unified Reich". [9]

In his book All or Nothing (2025), the journalist Michael Wolff described Harp as a "gatekeeper". [3] According to the journalist Alex Isenstadt, in one instance, Trump's wife Melania discovered Harp in his private quarters—an area reserved for the Trump family—delivering papers to him at night. [13] Her proximity to Trump concerned other aides, [14] some of whom attributed Trump's relationship with Harp to her decision to remain with him after the January 6 Capitol attack. [1] Aides who spoke to The New York Times described Harp as a "conduit" and an "instant enabler of his impulses". Trump purportedly remarked that Harp was the only aide who cared about him after his arraignment in connection with the Georgia election racketeering prosecution, according to the Times. The paper additionally reported on a letter Harp had allegedly sent to Trump stating that he was "all that matters to [her]" in 2023. [1] Her access to Trump allowed individuals to send damaging clips of their rivals to her, [1] and she served as an avenue for the political activist Laura Loomer to influence Trump. [14] In August, reported that Trump had directed her to send angry text messages to the financier Miriam Adelson in his name the previous month, [15] nearly costing Adelson's support. [1] She had provided Trump with an image of him wielding a baseball bat near Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg's head in advance of his indictment. [1]

Executive assistant to the president (2025–present)

In November 2024, after Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, The New York Times wrote that Harp was set to serve in his administration. [1] That month, she posted a private message sent to Trump by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was intended to be private. [1] In January 2025, Harp became Trump's executive assistant to the president. [16] She continued to dictate social media posts for Trump. [17]

Notes

  1. ↑ As confidential aide to the president.

References

Works cited

Books

  • Isenstadt, Alex (2025). Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN   978-1-5387-6553-1.
  • Wolff, Michael (2025). All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America. New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-5937-3538-1.

Articles

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