Donald Trump and his glamorous human printer: Inside relationship everyone in Washington is talking about

She is Donald Trumps glamorous human printer, the blonde aide rarely far from his side, whose closeness to the President has become a growing talking point in Washington.

So inseparable are the pair that the presidents recent escape from the NATO summit over a credible Iranian assassination plot saw him choose the 35-year-old aide over key cabinet members to fly with him. Even figures inside Trumps own circle said to have questioned the intensity of their bond.

Now Natalie Harps extraordinary intimacy with the 80-year-old has become the subject of intense talk, with questions growing over how an aide who once followed Trump around his golf courses, printing out favourable coverage, came to occupy such a trusted place at the very heart of his presidency.

The odd relationship between the two has even seen her referred to as Trump's "binky" - an American term for a baby's dummy.

There is no evidence of an improper relationship between the pair. But Harps constant presence, her unusual access and the intensely loyal language she has used about Trump have fuelled fascination with a relationship that appears far closer than the job title executive assistant might suggest.

That fascination burst into the open this week when Democratic senator Jon Ossoff accused Trump of preferring to travel with Natalie and build his ballroom rather than concentrate on the job of president. When CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes put the attack on Trump in the Oval Office, he blew up, sidestepping the reference to Harp and instead mocking Ossoff as a Pee-wee Herman lookalike before defending his White House renovation plans.

His team, however, reacted with fury. The White House rapid response operation branded Holmes a disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession and accused her of taking a cheap shot at one of Trumps staffers. The ferocity of the response only heightened the sense that Harp has become a particularly sensitive subject within Trumps circle.

And perhaps nothing has done more to underline her status than the extraordinary events surrounding the Presidents departure from Turkey last month. Trump had been attending the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8 when US security officials became concerned about a possible Iranian assassination attempt and arranged an elaborate deception to get him safely out of the country.

The President was secretly transferred from the aircraft everyone expected him to use to another military plane, reportedly travelling across the airport hidden from view inside a catering truck. Only a small group of aides went with him. Harp was one of them. Deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Oval Office operations director Walt Nauta also made the switch, along with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

But some of the biggest names in Trumps orbit were left behind on the decoy - at-risk - aircraft. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was among them. So was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, while Stephen Miller, one of Trumps longest-serving and most influential political advisers, was also reported to have remained behind. However, most political watchers highlighted how the presidents glamorous and fiercely loyal White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, was also left to fly on the plane. Days after news emerged of the Secret Services ruse to fly Trump out of Turkey, the 28-year-old announced her resignation, saying she wanted to spend time with her family and her 61-year-old husband.

Harps inclusion in the few who flew with the president has only intensified curiosity about a woman who has quietly become one of the most constant figures around the President. Her official role barely captures the extent of her access.

Harp travels extensively with Trump, is frequently seen close to him, and helps manage the steady stream of information presented to him each day. She has also become heavily involved in one of his greatest obsessions: Truth Social. For years, she has reportedly carried a laptop, paper and a portable printer while accompanying Trump, including on his golf courses, because of his preference for reading printed material.

She would produce flattering articles, praise from supporters and other material likely to catch his eye, a habit which earned her the nickname the human printer.

She is also reported to help assemble the torrent of material that ends up on Trumps social media account, including attacks on Democrats, messages from allies and stories praising the President. Posts can be printed out for Trump to review before Harp helps put approved material online, giving her a remarkable position close to the machinery through which he communicates with millions of supporters.

Her apparent knack for keeping Trump happy has long been noticed by those around him. Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, the Presidents former White House physician, said in 2024: She keeps everybody in a really good mood, and most importantly, she keeps the president in a really good mood. Harps fierce devotion to Trump began years before she entered the White House.

She first came to wider attention in 2019 after speaking publicly about her battle with stage II bone cancer and praising Trump for signing the 2018 Right to Try Act, which was designed to help seriously ill patients gain access to experimental treatments. Harp said she felt abandoned by both the political and medical establishments before casting Trump as the man who had helped give her hope.

But then an outsider, my Good Samaritan, President Donald J. Trump, he saw me there, and he didnt walk by; he stopped, she said.

Her praise became even more emotional at the 2020 Republican National Convention, where she told him: I wouldnt be alive today if it wasnt for you. On another occasion, she said: He gave up his quality of life so we could live and work and fight with dignity - because he believes in survival of the fighters, not the fittest.

Medical experts have previously questioned whether Trumps legislation can truly be credited with saving her life, but there has never been much doubt about the intensity of Harps gratitude towards him.

After a stint presenting for the strongly pro-Trump One America News Network, she joined his staff in 2022 and remained close to him during the years when his political future looked far less certain. She stayed through the investigations, the court cases, the campaign and his eventual return to the White House. For a politician who prizes loyalty above almost everything, that mattered.

Yet it is the strikingly personal tone of some of Harps reported messages to Trump which has helped turn an unusual working relationship into a Washington talking point. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swans book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump reports that Harp left deeply devoted notes for her boss. One reportedly read: You are all that matters to me.

According to accounts of the book, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was sufficiently struck by Harps position and access to wonder privately: Where am I?

But in a White House built so heavily around Trump himself, proximity is power, and Harp appears to enjoy an exceptional amount of both. Even members of her own family have publicly questioned the relationship.Her estranged brother Preston Harp has described it as very unhealthy and said he and Natalie were homeschooled together and raised by what he called an extremely conservative mother. Their father died in 2020, and Preston says he did not even know his sister was working for Trump until somebody showed him a news article in 2023.

I don't understand why my sister, or anyone, could want to work for Trump, he said. Preston has described the President as a national embarrassment and said of Natalie: Shes just like his fan club. In another interview, he went further, suggesting that his sister may see Trump in deeply personal terms. I think that she does see Trump as a kind of father figure because he embodies the doctrine of American exceptionalism, he said.

The White House has pushed back strongly against attempts to portray Harps closeness to Trump as sinister, instead presenting it as evidence of loyalty and trust. Spokesman Kush Desai has described her as a beloved White House Official and said the media would never understand what it was like to be as trusted and admired as her.

That trust is certainly not in doubt.

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