Until now, her existence has gone unnoticed by the general public, but the name Natalie Harp, the inseparable shadow of Donald Trump, has just burst forcefully into the center of the American political debate.
A controversial speech by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, along 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 in Trump's orbit.
The trigger: Ossoff's statements
Jon Ossoff, the senator seeking re-election in Georgia, took a shot at Trump during a rally with a phrase that ignited the media machinery:
"He doesn't want to do the work. He wants to build his ballroom 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 different plane than the official Air Force One, due 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 swift.
The spokesperson Davis Ingle defended her as "one of the most loyal and hardworking assistants in President Trump's team."
On his part, the director of communications Steven Cheung struck back at 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 with anger in the Oval Office when CNN reporter Kristen Holmes asked him about Ossoff's comments, shouting at her to be quiet.
In recent days, social media has been ablaze with the sudden viral spread of numerous images featuring Harp always positioned next to the president of the U.S.
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, her influence far exceeds what that title suggests: she carries a portable printer everywhere, controls the flow of information that reaches Trump, drafts his messages on Truth Social from dawn until dawn, and acts as a gatekeeper to the president.
“He is always around. Literally, always”, a source close to the BBC said.
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, does not ask.”
Their omnipresence creates ongoing internal friction.
According to Forbes, some advisors have attempted to exclude her from private meetings with the president, but by the time they arrive, she is already seated at the meeting.
Harp has told other employees that he only answers to Trump, which irritates those working within the usual chain of command.
The letters that crossed the professional line
What has most propelled 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 for 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, went so far as to tell 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 "father and daughter."
From cancer survivor to a figure of the MAGA movement
Harp was born in 1991 in California, into a conservative Christian family, and was homeschooled alongside her brother Preston using religious-oriented textbooks.
Years later, he was diagnosed with stage 2 bone cancer and, after several chemotherapy treatments failed, he received an immunotherapy drug approved by the FDA, although it was not authorized for his specific case.
At the 2020 Republican National Convention, she attributed 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 like 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 had an "obsession" with presidents since she was 16 and that she had already written letters to other leaders before Trump.
"She is the biggest fan of the president. She has written letters to other presidents. And so, her dream finally came true," he concluded.
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