The Media’s Strange Obsession with Natalie Harp

by David Shephard, ©2026 

(Aug. 24, 2026) — Most people who work in the White House are there because they love and admire the President, so I find it odd that the media, and many in the punditry, are complaining that a White House staffer, Natalie Harp, loves and admires President Trump too much. And they insinuate that this love and dedication have morphed into an “obsession,” or maybe even something worse.

I must admit I can’t get my head around the incomprehensibility of the charge that someone in the White House loves the President or their job beyond an acceptable limit. That love has crossed a line into obsession. What’s next? Is the media going to claim that the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is obsessed with football? That he loves it too much? That he is too obsessed with finding new defensive schemes, or too obsessed with pass protection? Perhaps fake news CNN will find the coach’s estranged brother and learn that the coach is so obsessed with football that he used to, and maybe still does, go to bed with a football. Maybe an ex-wife can be found who will claim that even over dinner the coach couldn’t help but talk about football. He seemed, to her at least, to be more preoccupied with Sunday’s big game than hearing about the errands that she ran earlier that afternoon.

This may seem like hyperbole, but this is exactly what the media is trying to do to White House staffer Natalie Harp. She is a conservative, she is Christian, she was homeschooled, she works hard and she supports the policies of President Trump. The media doesn’t like any of that. So, they pass on stories, rumors and innuendo designed to make her look bad. Did the media give this treatment to Hillary Clinton’s travel mate and assistant Huma Abedin or Obama’s Reggie Love? No, of course not.

The media cites as an example of Harp’s excessive devotion a story of her once trailing other White House staffers, and the motorcade was leaving without her. But she ran, barely caught up and jumped into the trunk of a car. Well, that is to her credit. This story, not sure if it is true, but it would be evidence that she is a go-getter. Unlike many of her generation, she is not going to expect the President’s motorcade to come back to get her. An extra trip would be costing taxpayers money. The media, which represents the view of the left, doesn’t like hard workers. Today, socialism and the dream of the 32-hour work week are on the rise.

The media has made much of letters of praise that Harp wrote to Trump, and while they may be a little sophomoric and overly fawning, there is nothing incriminating in them. Trump likes flattery, and Harp doesn’t mind flattering him; indeed she believes every kind word.

We must understand that working for a President, any President, is a hard job, which requires long hours. To work for a President requires a person who is willing to put their life on hold, cut the time they can spend with their family, and in exchange they make, per hour, a relatively low salary.

Natalie Harp is young, 35 years old, just old enough to be elected President herself, and she is a cancer survivor who credits Trump’s first term legislation on experimental medicine as saving her life, and she is President Trump’s “ever-present” Executive Assistant who, according to The Wall Street Journal:

Harp spends more time with Trump than any other aide, according to current and former administration officials. She sits at a desk immediately outside the Oval Office. During meetings, Harp can often be found next to Trump, armed with a laptop and phones so she can quickly get the president any contact or piece of information he needs, the officials said. Harp is one of a small number of aides with direct access to Trump’s Truth Social account.

The media even trotted out Harp’s estranged, jealous and Trump-hating brother who in an interview on CNN with Erin Burnett claimed that as kids they were taught that slavery was good and that his sister is “obsessed” with Trump. The brother, who to me seemed to be under the influence of something, was interviewed in what looked to me like his messy bedroom, and still in his pajamas, described his sister’s current position in life as “kind of sad.”

Is her life sad? Well, she survived cancer, and now at 35 she travels with the President of the United States and has an office next to his. She has such influence with Trump that she reports directly to him, something few cabinet members can say, and her loser brother goes on CNN and calls her “sad.”

Natalie Harp works for the President of the United States; who does her brother Preston work for? Erin Burnett didn’t ask. Is her brother proud of his sister? Erin Burnett didn’t ask.

David Shephard is a native and very proud Virginian.  Raised in Fairfax County, David graduated from George Mason University and majored in Government and Politics. He spent decades in politics, campaign consulting, raising money and lobbying.  He is also a longtime conservative blogger writing for numerous blogs.  He is also the host of “The Virginia Gentleman Podcast.”

David is the author of Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale, and his latest book, Norton’s Choice: An Inside Politics Exposé.