The aide so obsessed with Trump, she sparked security concerns

Yahoo

21-02-2025

Donald Trump's devoted aide Natalie Harp sparked Secret Service security concerns over her intense behaviour towards the Republican leader, it has been claimed.
Ms Harp, 33, was one Mr Trump's 'Charlie's Angels', a group of female staffers with whom he had an 'avuncular and flirtatious' relationship, according to an upcoming book.
The former Right-wing broadcaster would write letters of adoration to Mr Trump, 78, that were obtained by his security detail, who noted 'the strangeness of her behaviour'.
In one letter, Ms Harp reportedly told Mr Trump 'you are all that matters to me', and on the first day of his New York criminal trial she slipped him a letter quoting Bible verses and explaining she would be by his side.
The revelations about Ms Harp are disclosed in Michael Wolff's latest book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, which looks at Mr Trump's political comeback from 2023 to his election victory.
In the account, Wolff writes: 'The aggressiveness of her attention, and her fury when she was denied bestowing attention on Trump, was also of increasing concern to the security team.'
Brushing aside concerns that Ms Harp, who was reportedly due to be given a desk outside the Oval Office in the White House, was a security concern, Mr Trump said: 'Nonsense... She just loves her president'.
Eric Trump, Mr Trump's son, also questioned Ms Harp's closeness to his father and reportedly 'took a turn at trying to solve the situation in a set of annoyed queries to the legal team'.
Describing her as a 'time bomb', Wolff writes: 'Even the Secret Service had now weighed in: Natalie was a security consideration. But no one was going to tell Trump that.'
Ms Harp sat behind Mr Trump in court every day during his criminal trial and became known as the 'human printer' because she would carry a portable device to hand Mr Trump a steady stream of flattering stories held together by gold paper clips.
So devoted was Ms Harp – who credits Mr Trump with saving her life through his Right to Try law, which she says allowed her to access experiential treatment for a rare bone cancer – Wolff claims that she offered to go to prison for the US president in a bid to circumvent the gag order imposed by a the judge.
'In the third week of the trial, lawyers were stunned to hear Natalie – whose provocations were largely responsible for the gag order in the first place – offer a solution: She would post his attacks under her own name,' Wolff writes.
''I'll go to prison,' she announced. A bewildered legal team stared at her as though she had three eyes in her forehead.'
The loyal aide is also understood to have put through an 'eye-popping' expense bill for a new wardrobe, insisting Mr Trump had told her to go shopping in preparation for being on camera more frequently.
Ms Harp would help Mr Trump write his posts for Truth Social to the point that aides became confused over whether comments were 'her voice or his' and 'more and more, it was one voice'.
Wolff's upcoming publication comes seven years after Fire and Fury, his controversial book about life inside the White House during the first Trump administration, which was denounced by the US president as being based on 'lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist'.
Here are some other revelations set out in Wolff's latest book.
The US president is said to have 'reluctantly' given up his second day of testimony at his civil fraud trial amid concerns he could be asked 'potentially embarrassing' questions about where Melania Trump actually lived.
'That profound question at the heart of Trumpworld, the answer to which no one quite knew, could get asked under oath: 'Where exactly does your wife live?'' Wolff writes.
There has been speculation Mrs Trump resides in a separate flat in Trump Tower and Mr Trump could be pressed on how much time each of them spend in their multiple residences.
'To say the least, that arrangement, an American marriage on a coolly transactional basis, might be difficult to explain in open court and to 'family values' America,' Mr Wolff added.
Mr Trump's relationship, or lack thereof, with his wife and her unwillingness to be part of his presidential run is a constant theme throughout the book.
'She f---ing hates him,' said one Mar-a-Lago source of Mrs Trump's feelings towards her husband and his family.
The first lady was notably absent from the campaign trail, only making brief appearances at Mr Trump's Madison Square Garden rally in New York and at the Republican National Convention (RNC).
After Mr Trump's first indictment, Jason Miller, Mr Trump's campaign advisor at the time, was reportedly sent to talk with Mrs Trump to make a 'pitch' about the importance of her standing by her husband.
She is said to have replied: 'Nice try'.
When the issue of Jill Biden's planned appearance at the end of the first presidential debate was raised, 'no one had even proposed' the idea of Mrs Trump being there.
Her appearance at the RNC had also seemed 'iffy', according to Wolff, who alleges she finally agreed to attend but would only arrive in the VIP box only after Mr Trump had left.
On the night of the election, she would not appear on stage with her husband 'unless it was an outright win', Wolff writes.
Mr Trump spent days practicing his pose for his now-infamous mug shot photo for his arraignment in the Georgia election subversion case, according to the book.
'He'd been practicing it for days – on the golf course, in the mirror, in front of the legal team, and among Bedminster [the Trump golf course in New Jersey] members', Wolff writes.
'It was a detail that had been left hanging, whether there would be or wouldn't be one... But Trump had been toying with the idea: A mug shot would make this indictment different from the others.'
Wolff adds: 'He was in and out in no time – with the mug shot taken in an instant. But he was over the moon: he loved the picture. 'This looks so cool, this is a classic, this is iconic,' he kept pronouncing.'
After Mr Trump's second Butler rally, during which Elon Musk stole the limelight with his eccentric on-stage leaps, Mr Trump said: 'what the f--- is wrong with this guy?'
He also reportedly asked: 'And why doesn't his shirt fit?'
Wolff describes Mr Musk as having inserted himself into the campaign with 'an ever-rising tide of bewildering, if not opaque, requests, orders, and recommendations from him or his people'.
He says Mr Musk elevated the campaign 'in his own mind to a personal mission and a religious cause, with the Trump circle already anticipating the earth shaking when he and Trump invariably fall out'.
Credit: Fox News Channel's Hannity
In one moment recounted in the book, Mr Musk declines to speak to JD Vance, who he pushed as Mr Trump's vice-president pick, saying: 'I've really no interest in speaking to a vice-president'.
The jurors serving on Mr Trump's 'hush money' criminal trial were put off by the US president's 'bully boys' of Maga loyalists who would attend court to 'intimidate the jury'.
In his book, Wolff identifies one of the jurors from the trial as Patrick Robson, a lawyer in Manhattan, who recounted the jury's sentiments to friends at a party.
'Matt Gaetz, glaring and smirking during his appearance behind Trump, had particularly seemed to try and stare them down', Wolff writes.
He added that the 'lookalike' women on the stand and in Mr Trump's entourage had also been picked up.
'The impossible-to-miss Stepford Wife-ism and physical requirements, a creepy detail that, in a case fundamentally about sexual proclivities, supported the ick factor,' Wolff adds.
The US president also reportedly asked whether the judge in his 'hush money' criminal case would take back his permission for Mr Trump to attend his son Barron's graduation.
Mr Trump, who saw his legal strategy as his media strategy, thought his son's offer to skip his high school graduation and attend court was 'sheer brilliance' and asked his lawyer Todd Blanche 'ruefully asked if they could get the judge to take back his permission'.
Joe Biden performed so badly in the presidential debate Mr Trump thought it was a Democrat 'set-up' and was contemplating ways to 'help save' him.
Mr Trump sensed his opponent was not 'right' while he was on the debate stage, but did not know if it was obvious to everyone else.
'He would later tell people he thought the media was again going to cover up for Joe. And then he started to think he was going to look bad for pounding him too hard. 'Do I let up?', he wondered,' Wolff writes.
Thinking Mr Biden's car-crash performance was a ploy to get rid of him as the Democratic nominee, Mr Trump 'was grasping for a strategy to help save Joe. But there wasn't one.'
Coming off stage, Mr Trump reportedly said: 'That's it. They're going to swap him out.'
Mr Trump believed he could win the presidency without picking a vice-president and would have preferred to run alone, according to the book.
'I could win without a VP, and you know, honestly, I'd kind of prefer not to have one,' Mr Trump reportedly said as he mulled over his decision.
The Republican leader had initially considered making Robert F Kennedy Jr his vice-president, and would ask people what they thought of a 'Trump-Kennedy ticket'.
According to Wolff, he said: 'Just tell me how that sounds. Can you do better than that?'
But Mr Trump's 'unofficial' feelers to the former Democrat were 'unofficially turned down', Wolff writes, a story the Trump campaign previously denied.
Mr Trump was so unimpressed with the candidates to be his second in command that he did not make a decision until his plane touched down in Milwaukee before the RNC.
He had wanted a woman for the role but had been disappointed there were no suitable contenders to pick from, after he ruled out Nikki Haley when she refused to drop out of the presidential race.
Rupert Murdoch had wanted Mr Trump to pick Mike Pompeo and later backed Doug Burgum, but Donald Trump Jr and Mr Musk had pushed for Mr Vance, with the latter reportedly telling Mr Trump his support was contingent on it.
Vivek Ramaswamy made a 'formal presentation' for Mr Trump on why he should pick him, and was 'crushed' when Mr Trump suggested he appoint him secretary of homeland security, reportedly saying: 'You're a brown guy, so when you're tough on immigration, no one is going to get mad.'
In response to Wolff's upcoming book, the Trump campaign collectively issued a statement last year.
'A number of us have received inquiries from the disgraced author Michael Wolff, whose previous work can only be described as fiction,' they said.
'He is a known peddler of fake news who routinely concocts situations, conversations, and conclusions that never happened. As a group, we have decided not to respond to his bad faith inquiries, and we encourage others to completely disregard whatever nonsense he eventually publishes. Consider this our blanket response to whatever he writes.'
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