Natalie Harp, a 35-year-old White House aide who previously worked at the Save America Super PAC, has become the focal point of an intensifying political scandal centered on her unusually close relationship with President Trump and her extraordinary access to sensitive information without security clearance.
Harp serves as special assistant and executive assistant to the president, a dual role that has made her one of Trump’s most omnipresent staffers. According to CNN, she has become “a main conduit between the president and the outside world,” passing along messages from allies, setting up meetings, and tapping out Truth Social posts while maintaining close physical proximity to Trump at all hours. She earned the nickname “the human printer” for her practice of supplying Trump with printouts of favorable coverage and positive social media posts.
The scandal erupted this week after Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff mentioned Harp by name in a campaign speech attacking Trump. According to The Guardian, Ossoff swiped at the president’s “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” a reference to her joining the president when he secretly boarded a smaller aircraft to leave Turkey in July due to an alleged Iranian assassination threat. The remark prompted an extraordinary backlash from the White House, which repeatedly labeled Ossoff a “cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid” and “lightweight loser.”
The controversy has intensified following revelations about Harp’s security clearance status. According to MS Now, reported by The Guardian on August 20, Harp worked at the White House for approximately a year without routine security clearance. She refused to file the relevant paperwork for unknown reasons, and only completed the process when the White House counsel’s office raised the issue and Trump himself became involved.
Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics tsar, told The Guardian: “It is shocking that an aide who has potential exposure to the nation’s most sensitive secrets reportedly went without a security clearance for so long. Treating access to confidences as a casual job perk is an outrageous way to handle our national security.”
Harp’s rise within Trump’s orbit began in 2019 when she appeared on Fox News to praise his Right-to-Try legislation, crediting it with saving her life after she was diagnosed with stage 2 bone cancer. She joined the far-right One America News Network in 2020 and began working for Trump in 2022 at the Save America PAC before following him to the White House after his 2024 campaign.
Her devotion to the president has drawn widespread attention. According to The Guardian, citing reporting from New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their book Regime Change, Harp wrote Trump intensely admiring letters, including one in which she told him: “You are all that matters to me.” CNN reported that in October 2023, when Trump was due at a New York City courthouse, Harp discovered there was no seat for her in his motorcade and jumped into the trunk of an SUV, insisting that Trump had personally asked her to attend.
The intensity of her role has occasionally ruffled feathers within the White House. According to CNN, some Trump advisers have wanted to meet privately with the president only to find Harp sitting in on the meeting as well. The 35-year-old is also territorial about Trump and has told others that she only reports to him, irritating other staffers who work within the White House’s chain of command, CNN reported.
In response to the security clearance revelations, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that “Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump’s team.” However, critics across the political spectrum have raised concerns about the arrangement. David Axelrod, former chief strategist to Barack Obama, posted on X: “If this story is true, and the person closest to the @POTUS and his thinking on a daily basis has no security clearance and refuses to submit to the process of getting it, it’s a deadly serious issue.”
Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer for George W. Bush, noted to The Guardian that while all White House staff typically undergo background investigations, only some require additional security clearance depending on their access to classified information. He emphasized that if Harp accompanies the president on Air Force One trips where she could overhear classified conversations, she needs the clearance.
The situation echoes concerns from Trump’s first administration. Donald K. Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Guardian: “In his first administration, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was only granted a clearance after Trump ordered it, overruling concerns raised by intelligence officials. Too often, the president has given more flexibility with security clearances to those closest to him, which is a disturbing trend given the kind of sensitive information they may have access to.”
Despite the scrutiny, few expect the scandal to weaken Harp’s standing with Trump himself. CNN reported that even when allies privately speculated Harp was responsible for a racist video Trump posted and then deleted earlier this year—depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes—they were reluctant to name her, fearing that doing so would only strengthen Trump’s support for her.
Sources
- CNN — Harp’s role as Trump’s closest aide, her devotion to Trump, the SUV trunk incident, and internal White House dynamics
- The Guardian — Security clearance revelations, ethics experts’ responses, Ossoff’s campaign speech, and leaked letters from Harp to Trump
- MS Now — Report that Harp worked at the White House for a year without security clearance
- Naples News — Harp’s previous work at Save America Super PAC
- BBC — Harp’s background at One America News Network and her promotion of false 2020 election claims
