Eric Trump, the president's second son, took to social media Wednesday to defend White House aide Natalie Harp, dismissing the recent media scrutiny of her relationship with his father as “absolute trash.”
In a post on X, Eric Trump praised Harp as “an incredible young woman — a cancer survivor, a genuinely good person, and arguably one of the hardest-working people in the White House.” He added that she is “deeply committed to my father, to her job, and to this country.” He also took a swipe at CNN, writing, “@CNN continues to be a joke.”
The defense came after CNN's Erin Burnett aired an interview Tuesday night with Harp's estranged brother, Preston Harp, who described an incident in 2023 when Natalie reportedly jumped into the trunk of the presidential motorcade after being told there were no seats left. Preston Harp called the episode “actually kind of sad” and suggested it reflected “an unhealthy obsession.”
Harp, who has become a frequent presence at President Trump's side during golf outings and visits to Mar-a-Lago, is known for carrying a portable printer to provide the president with hard copies of information and for staying late to draft his social media posts, according to The New York Times.
The aide's proximity to the president has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) raised the issue at a rally in Atlanta, saying Trump “wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.” In a subsequent interview with MSNBC's Jen Psaki, Ossoff said he could have made similar remarks about other senior aides, arguing that they “are not telling him what he needs to hear” but rather “what he wants to hear,” and warned that “the nation is at war, and we cannot afford that.”
Harp, who battled bone cancer in 2019, has described Trump in letters as her “guardian and protector in this life,” while the president has praised her fight against the disease. She has credited a 2018 law signed by Trump with giving her access to experimental treatments.
The renewed attention on Harp comes amid broader sagging approval ratings for the president and ongoing controversies within his inner circle. Critics have questioned the influence of family members and close aides, with some pointing to concerns about the Trump family's financial entanglements as another example of potential conflicts of interest.
Eric Trump's defense of Harp is unlikely to quell the criticism, as Democrats and some Republicans continue to raise questions about the president's decision-making and the people he surrounds himself with. The White House has not issued an official statement on the matter.
