--- title: What to Know About Trump’s Aide Natalie Harp description: The previously little-known White House aide has garnered growing attention after Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her in an attack on Trump. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/08/19/natalie-harp-trump-white-house-aide-jon-ossoff/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-19T20:02:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T20:35:53.429Z article:section: Politics og:title: What to Know About Trump’s Aide Natalie Harp og:description: The previously little-known White House aide has garnered growing attention after Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her in an attack on Trump. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/08/19/natalie-harp-trump-white-house-aide-jon-ossoff/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83510714ed19256c/6a8608823d34b59ec42c9ea8/Natalie-Harp.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Natalie-Harp.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About Trump’s Aide Natalie Harp twitter:description: The previously little-known White House aide has garnered growing attention after Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her in an attack on Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83510714ed19256c/6a8608823d34b59ec42c9ea8/Natalie-Harp.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About Trump’s Aide Natalie Harp ## Video: CNN Condemns Trump's Attacks on Journalist Kristen Holmes Following Heated Oval Office Response [Watch (HLS stream): CNN Condemns Trump's Attacks on Journalist Kristen Holmes Following Heated Oval Office Response](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rynvkcE5.m3u8) (0:56)  _Published 2026-08-19. The previously little-known White House aide has garnered growing attention after Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her in an attack on Trump._ by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Aug 19, 2026 8:02 PM UTC  President Donald Trump and aide Natalie Harp (R) exit Marine One on the Ellipse near the White House on Aug. 16, 2026. President Donald Trump and aide Natalie Harp (R) exit Marine One on the Ellipse near the White House on Aug. 16, 2026.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Aug 19, 2026 8:02 PM UTC A previously little-known White House aide has garnered growing public attention in recent days after Sen. [Jon Ossoff](https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2021/5937693/jon-ossoff/) mentioned her while levying an attack on President [Donald Trump](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/donald-trump/). The Georgia Democrat [said](https://x.com/atrupar/status/2089089370259070987) that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” of President. Instead, Ossoff continued, “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie.” Ossoff was referring to 35-year-old Natalie Harp, a longtime aide to Trump. When asked about Ossoff’s comments, Trump likened the Democrat to “Pee-wee Herman” and said he “would much rather do other things.” **Read More:** [_CNN Condemns the White House’s Attacks on Journalist Kristen Holmes: Here’s What to Know_](https://time.com/article/2026/08/18/cnn-white-house-kristen-holmes-journalist-attacks/) So who is Harp, and what is her role in the White House? Here’s what to know. ## Harp said that Trump saved her life In 2019, Harp went on [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/millennial-fighting-cancer-thanks-trump-for-right-to-try-during-faith-conference-appearance) and thanked Trump for signing the Right to Try law the year before. She told the network that she had stage 2 bone cancer, and that the new law allowed her to access experimental treatments, which she said saved her life. After hearing her recount her experience, Trump asked her to give a speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention, according to the [New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/us/politics/trump-natalie-harp.html). “When I failed the chemotherapies that were on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials,” she said at the event. “They didn’t give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did, and without you, I’d have died waiting for them to be approved.” But after the convention, the [Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/25/natalie-harp-bone-cancer-trump/) reported that medical experts cast doubt on Harp’s claims.Harp has said that she was treated with “an FDA-approved immunotherapy drug for an unapproved use,” and experts said that the federal legislation that Trump signed in 2018 wouldn’t have made that drug accessible to Harp because the medication had already been approved. About two years after her speech at the Republican National Convention, she became a member of Trump’s staff. ## She used to work for a far-right news channel Before Harp joined Trump’s team, she worked as an anchor for a far-right news channel called One America News Network for a couple years. While working for the network, she propagated Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. ## Her official title is ‘special assistant to the President and executive assistant to the President’ In Harp’s role, officially called the “special assistant to the President and executive assistant to the President,” she works closely with Trump. Many of the Truth Social posts that the President shares are ones that he dictated to her to type and hit “post” on. According to the _Times,_ which cited two people who were aware of the situation, Harp hit the “send” button on the enraged messages that Trump sent to the billionaire and major Republican donor Miriam Adelson in 2024—messages that nearly lost him Adelson’s backing. Harp was also the one who transcribed dozens of social media posts that Trump dictated to her one day in which he attacked the writer [E. Jean Carroll](https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965208/e-jean-carroll-2024/), who alleged that Trump raped her in the 1990s, the _Times_ reported. Some of Harp’s colleagues have dubbed her the “human printer” because she is known for carrying a portable printer as she trails Trump around so she can give him whatever information he wants or needs in print copies. ## She was one of the select number of people who was on Trump’s secret flight out of Turkey When Trump left Turkey in July on a secret, alternate plane after receiving an Iranian assassination threat, only a few people working in the White House were on his flight, including Harp, [CBS News reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-secret-flight-turkey-pete-hegseth-marco-rubio-scott-bessent/). Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was also on the plane with Trump and Harp, as were a couple other aides. Other higher-up members of his Administration, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, were on the other plane—the one that the Administration had said that Trump would travel on, and that members of the White House press corps were on. **Read More:** [_Why Trump’s Secret Flight Was Extraordinary by Presidential Standards_](https://time.com/article/2026/08/11/trump-secret-flight-white-house-press-pool-journalists/) When asked by the [_Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/us/politics/natalie-harp-trump-devotion-white-house.html)about Harp’s role in the White House and why she was selected to be among the few staffers on the secret flight, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “Natalie Harp is one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump’s team.” CNN Condemns Trump's Attacks on Journalist Kristen Holmes Following Heated Oval Office Response ## The nature of her relationship with Trump has been a subject of scrutiny According to the _Times,_ Harp wrote Trump several letters in 2023 that concerned some people near him. In the letters, which reporters at the _Times_ viewed, Harp wrote messages including: “You are all that matters to me” and “I don’t ever want to let you down.” She called Trump her “Guardian and Protector in this Life,” and thanked him, the outlet reported. “I want to bring you joy,” she wrote in one of the letters, according to the _Times,_ “to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’” The news outletalso reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the remark, that Trump said at one point in 2023 that Harp was the only person on his team who cared about him. Harp’s estranged brother, Preston Harp, was asked about the _Times_’ reporting about the 2023 letters when he appeared on [CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyibv0XggMk) this week. He replied: “I’d say since she was like 16, she’s had an obsession with, gosh, how do I explain this? She’s written letters to other Presidents. Let me put it that way. And so like, her dream came true finally.” When asked which Presidents she wrote letters to, he said: “I didn’t see the letter, but George Bush obviously, during the Iraq war.” He also described his sister’s relationship with Trump as an “infatuation” but said, “I don’t think it’s a physical attraction.” “I think that Trump’s best friends are people who are his fan club,” he said. “And so she’s his biggest fan. And so that’s probably why he likes her. And she’s good looking. She’s got a good personality. I don’t know.” “I mean she thinks that he saved her life, so, like, somebody living with that kind of gratitude—that must feel pretty good,” he continued. Harp has not publicly spoken about her relationship with Trump in the wake of Ossoff’s comments, but other White House aides and Republicans have jumped to her defense. In a statement to TIME, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle called Ossoff’s comments “cringeworthy” and criticized the Senator’s voting record, in addition to defending Harp. “Natalie Harp is one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team,” Ingle said in the statement. Eric Trump, one of the President’s sons, slammed CNN’s interview with Preston Harp on Wednesday. “What absolute trash,” he said in a [post on X](https://x.com/EricTrump/status/2090097743364583548?s=20). “Natalie is an incredible young woman — a cancer survivor, a genuinely good person, and arguably one of the hardest-working people in the White House. She’s deeply committed to my father, to her job, and to this country.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/19/natalie-harp-trump-white-house-aide-jon-ossoff/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/08/19/natalie-harp-trump-white-house-aide-jon-ossoff/"},"headline":"What to Know About Trump’s Aide Natalie Harp","datePublished":"2026-08-19T20:02:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T20:35:53.429Z","description":"The previously little-known White House aide has garnered growing attention after Sen. 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