I Did a Deep Dive Into Natalie Harp’s Letters to Donald Trump. One Particular Line Will Haunt Me.

Fame Has anyone ever thought this about the president before? By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Heather Schwedel? Aug 21, 20265:35 PM Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Finn Gomez/Getty Images, bestsale/Getty Images Plus, and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. A few things become immediately clear upon reading two letters Trump White House aide Natalie Harp allegedly wrote to President Trump, which were published by the Daily Beast on Thursday: One is that Harp, a 35-year-old woman in possession of a college diploma, a master’s degree, and a $150,000-a-year job in the White House, has absolutely no idea how to use a comma. But another, probably of more urgent concern, is that none of the media reports that described Harp as scarily obsessed with Trump appeared to be exaggerating even a little bit. These letters, previously seen by reporters and quoted in books and articles, were published in full this week amid a late-August frenzy over Harp and her role in the Trump administration. (The well-sourced but, according to some critics, embellishment-prone journalist Michael Wolff said he obtained them while working on a recent biography of President Trump. Though they haven’t been verified by anyone beyond Wolff at this point, New York Times reporters have claimed to have seen letters too, and the bits they’ve quoted appeared to match language contained in these.) As to why everyone is suddenly talking about Harp, her official title is special assistant and executive assistant to the president, but unofficially, she’s become known as one of Trump’s closest aides and a key gatekeeper in his second term. She’s apparently so important that she was by one of the few people who accompanied Trump when he secretly fled Air Force One over security concerns last month. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, not to mention a plane full of journalists, were not among those whisked away, leading to reasonable questions about why a junior, little-known figure like Harp was chosen. But all of this might have been quickly forgotten were it not for George Sen. Jon Ossoff, who decided to reference a certain “Natalie” in a recent speech, kicking off a weeklong (and counting) news cycle all about Harp. And now, we’ve got these letters. Both appear have been written to Trump during or after a May 2023 trip he took to Scotland and Ireland to visit his golf courses there. The first is an apology, and the second is also sort of an apology, but also a journal-entry-like reflection, thank you note, and love letter, all wrapped into one. What is she actually apologizing for? The letters are so overtly sycophantic that I’d believe that she makes a habit of regularly apologizing in writing just in case she happens to have done anything wrong lately. In the first letter, she refers to walking on one of the golf courses rather than taking a cart. Does this mean Trump specifically chided her for walking on a golf course instead of taking a cart, or does it mean that Harp perceived him sneer in her direction and began to worry it had something to do with her chosen mode of transportation? Both scenarios are believable and yet completely bizarre. Harp also apologizes for calling Trump—doesn’t Trump famously love picking up the phone?—and not returning texts promptly enough, though she shunts some of the blame for that one toward some guy named “John.” “I want things to always be right between us,” Harp writes, sounding like more like the fictional voiceover from a young-adult novel than a real person. In the next letter, Harp spends more time musing about her relationship with Trump. They have really good conversations, she repeatedly asserts. Has anyone ever had a good conversation with Trump? If I didn’t already suspect Harp of being severely delusional, that alone would be evidence enough. She writes that she misses the days when she was just a “talkshow host,” when they used to talk about “everything and nothing.” Uh, no wonder Melania Trump is apparently wary of this woman. At the end of this letter, Harp chooses to quote Jane Austen of all people: “I could not have parted with you, to anyone less worthy,” she writes. In Pride & Prejudice, this is what the main character’s father says about the man she eventually marries, Mr. Darcy, as in: You found a good match. When Harp says it, she’s talking about her late father, and how he is probably proud that she’s with Trump now, but needless to say, she is not with Trump in the same way Elizabeth Bennet was with Mr. Darcy. Unless. “And, I will add, it is I who is unworthy.” I am just quoting that part to make you barf, whether from the grammar or the meaning or both. Trump is known for being surrounded by lackeys and yes-men, but as Trump himself has pointed out, most of them also have goals of their own underneath their boosterism. Even the ones who agree with him for the most part politically seek to appease him, and want power and fortunes of their own eventually. Harp is different, though. Her devotion to Trump is so pure, so guileless, so observably unlike other humans that one can only reach for cartoon and fantasy characters to compare her to: She’s like a Smithers from The Simpsons meets Dobby from Harry Potter meets LeFou from Beauty and the Beast, all in the body of a young Fox News blonde. Does she have a crush on him, does she want him to be her dad, what is it? Either way, it should be disqualifying for a job in the White House, and these letters should be a smoking gun. For Trump though? I wonder if they’re stuck to the White House fridge with magnets, or pinned to a bulletin board, maybe under the heading “Fan Mail.” Donald Trump White House