Until now, her existence went unnoticed by the general public, but the name of Natalie Harp, the inseparable shadow of Donald Trump, has just made a strong entrance into the heart of the American political debate.
A controversial speech by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff that went viral, coupled with the recent revelation of intense personal letters written to the president, has brought to light the figure of this 35-year-old woman who operates from the shadows and controls the flow of information within Trump's orbit.
The trigger: Ossoff's statements
Jon Ossoff, the senator seeking reelection in Georgia, took aim at Trump at a rally with a phrase that ignited the media machinery:
"He doesn't want to do the work. He wants to build his dance hall and travel with Natalie in his seemingly defenseless flying palace, a gift from the emir of Qatar."
The reference alluded to an episode in which Trump secretly left Turkey—where he had attended a NATO summit in Ankara—on a plane different from the official Air Force One, in response to a credible Iranian threat.
Harp was one of the very few people who accompanied him on that flight, while other cabinet members traveled on the "decoy" plane.The official reaction was not long in coming.
The spokesperson Davis Ingle defended her as "one of the most loyal and hardworking members of President Trump's team."
On his part, the communications director Steven Cheung attacked Ossoff: "Instead of denigrating hardworking people who serve their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he is a miserable person who hates this country."
Trump himself reacted angrily in the Oval Office when CNN reporter Kristen Holmes asked him about Ossoff's comments, even shouting at her to be quiet.
In recent days, social media has been buzzing with the sudden viral spread of numerous images in which Harp is always the woman beside the president of the United States.
A constant presence and $150,000 a year
Harp's official position is that of special assistant and executive assistant to the president, with a salary of 150,000 dollars per year.
However, in practice, their influence far exceeds what that title suggests: they bring a portable printer everywhere, control the flow of information that reaches Trump, draft his messages on Truth Social from dawn until dusk and act as a gatekeeper to access the president.
“It’s always around. Literally, always,” a source close to the White House told the BBC.
An advisor explained to CNN the reasoning behind that devotion from the perspective of the leader himself: “He enjoys the attention and the fact that she is 100% committed and loyal. She does not question, she does not ask.”
Its omnipresence generates ongoing internal frictions.
According to Forbes, some advisors have tried to exclude her from private meetings with the president, but by the time they arrive, she is already seated in the meeting.
Harp has told other employees that he only answers to Trump, which annoys those who work within the usual chain of command.
The letters that crossed the professional line
What has most driven her media discovery are the letters that Harp wrote to Trump in 2023, documented by The New York Times and analyzed in the book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, by NYT journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
In one of those letters, Harp wrote: “I want things to always be good between us. I also know that I have been distracted all week, forgetting to eat for days and even sleeping only a couple of hours at a time. With all my love, Natalie.”
In other notes from the same period, she told the president: "You are the only thing that matters to me"; and she thanked him for being her "guardian and protector in this life."
Trump, for his part, is said to have told his staff that Harp was the only person who loved him "as much as his wife and children." Meanwhile, a person familiar with the matter described the relationship to CNN as a "father-daughter" relationship.
From cancer survivor to figure of the MAGA movement
Harp was born in 1991 in California to a conservative Christian family and was homeschooled alongside her brother Preston using religiously oriented textbooks.
Years later, he would be diagnosed with stage 2 bone cancer and, after the failure of several chemotherapy treatments, he received an FDA-approved immunotherapy drug, although it was not authorized for his specific case.
At the 2020 Republican National Convention, she credited her recovery to Trump: "They didn't give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did, and without you, I would have died waiting for them to be approved."
Experts and media outlets such as The Washington Post pointed out, however, that her treatment was an off-label use of an already approved drug, which did not require the law she praised.
After Trump's defeat in 2020, she worked as a presenter on One America News Network (OANN), where she actively promoted theories of electoral fraud. She left the network in 2022 to fully join Trump's presidential campaign.
"His dream finally came true."
Who perhaps best summarizes the Harp phenomenon is her own brother, Preston, with whom she is estranged. In statements to CNN, he revealed that his sister has been "obsessed" with presidents since she was 16 and that she had already written letters to other leaders before writing to Trump.
"She is the president's biggest fan. She has written letters to other presidents. And so, her dream finally came true," he concluded.
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