Trump aide Natalie Harp enters political spotlight

Natalie Harp, a 35-year-old executive assistant to US President Donald Trump, has drawn new attention after being identified as one of the people who switched from Air Force One with Trump in Turkey following a security threat and after comments by Democratic Senate hopeful Jon Ossoff.

Ossoff, widely viewed as a possible 2028 presidential contender, referred to Harp in a weekend speech while criticising Trump. The comments spread online and angered the White House.

Harp is a close aide who is often at Trump's side. She has been nicknamed the "human printer" because she carries a portable printer for documents Trump requests. Footage in the documentary "Art of the Surge" showed her typing Truth Social posts as Trump dictated them.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended her in a statement, calling Harp one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on Trump's team and accusing the media of repeating liberal talking points.

The book "Regime Change" by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan said Trump told aides that Harp would never leave him. The New York Times also reported notes in which Harp expressed deep loyalty to Trump, and CNN reported that she once insisted on riding in the trunk of an SUV to accompany him to a New York courthouse when staff said there was no room in the motorcade.

Harp has said she had terminal bone cancer and credited access to experimental drugs through a Trump first-term program with saving her life. She told the Republican National Convention in 2020 that she would not be alive without Trump.