Natalie Harp, one of President Donald Trump’s closest aides, is facing new scrutiny over her access to the president after a report that she worked in the White House for more than a year without completing the routine security-clearance process. And newly published letters are offering a closer look at the intensely personal language she has used with Trump.
Harp now has a security clearance, but MS NOW reported this week she repeatedly declined to complete the process for reasons that remain unknown.
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In response, the White House strongly defended her role.
“Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump’s team,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The Daily Beast on Friday also published in full two letters Harp wrote to Trump in 2023, including one in which she told him, “You are all that matters to me.”
Harp works unusually close to Trump
Harp serves as both special assistant and executive assistant to the president. She travels with Trump, spends time near him in the West Wing and presidential residence, helps with his Truth Social posts and delivers much of the material he sees each day.
MS NOW reports that some White House and Secret Service officials were troubled by that level of access while her security paperwork remained incomplete. One national security official told the outlet that Harp’s proximity to Trump could put her around sensitive information more often than nearly every other senior White House official.
Senior staff also tried unsuccessfully to limit her round-the-clock access to Trump, according to the report.
In a post on X, former Obama adviser David Axelrod called the situation a “deadly serious issue” if the reporting is accurate.
Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told The Guardian that Harp’s regular duties may not involve classified information. But he said traveling with Trump and being within earshot of sensitive conversations would require the appropriate clearance.
Newly published letters offer a closer look at Harp’s relationship with Trump
The Daily Beast published two letters Friday that Harp wrote to Trump in 2023, releasing them in full after excerpts had previously appeared in Michael Wolff’s book and The New York Times.
In one, Harp told Trump, “You’re all that matters to me,” and said she did not want to let him down. In another, she wrote about envying women whose only job seemed to be talking with Trump and looking pretty, adding, “I want that job!!”
Harp also wrote that she wanted “things to always be right between us” and worried about being lowered in Trump’s opinion.
Wolff said campaign staffers found the letters among material Harp regularly delivered to Trump and photographed them. He said the letters were later given to him by people in the campaign who were concerned about Harp’s growing closeness to Trump.
The White House defended Harp in response, calling her “one of the most loyal land hardest-working aides on President Trump’s team” and attacking the media coverage.
Ossoff brings Harp into the spotlight
Harp was largely unknown outside political circles until Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., mentioned her while attacking Trump during a campaign speech this week.
Ossoff accused Trump of preferring to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” rather than do his job. The White House responded sharply, and Harp’s role and unusually close relationship with the president quickly received wider attention.
Harp, 35, joined Trump’s political operation in 2022 after working at One America News and speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Campaign aides nicknamed her the “Human Printer” because she regularly delivered printed articles, polls and other material to Trump.
Last month, Harp was among a small group that accompanied Trump when he secretly switched aircraft in Turkey after an alleged Iranian assassination threat. Other senior officials and traveling journalists remained aboard the decoy Air Force One.
Melania Trump returns
First Lady Melania Trump returned to a White House event for her Fostering the Future initiative Thursday after more than a month without a public appearance — and immediately acknowledged her absence.
“I heard you missed me. Here I am,” she said to laughs.
Round out your reading
- All your questions about napping, answered.
- Trump’s $5,000 promise echoes past payouts that never materialized.
- Inside the effort to make data centers pay their share of electricity costs.
- Why did the Feds seize the ’largest Martian meteorite on Earth’?
- Photos and video show exactly where and when Trump visited Ground Zero after 9/11.
