Trump gave his assistant Natalie Harp $45,000 - almost a third of her annual salary

She is 35 years old and rarely leaves US President Donald Trump's side: It has now been announced that Trump's personal assistant Natalie Harp received a cash gift of $45,000 (around 38,600 euros) from the 80-year-old. Two other White House aides, Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris, received the same amount, according to a White House financial release Wednesday.

The three women described the money on the forms as a “cash gift for the holidays” last year. According to the documents, the bonus came from Trump himself and not from public funds. The Washington Post was the first to report on it.

Harp is one of Trump's closest aides. She accompanies him on trips, creates posts for him on online networks and prints out information from the Internet, which has earned her the nickname “human printer” from mockers. She carries a portable device with her.

A third of her annual salary

Harp is also one of the few employees who have access to Trump's account on his online service Truth Social. According to a 2024 documentary about the presidential campaign, she writes down contributions dictated by Trump and inserts his trademark capital letters.

In their recently published book “Regime Change,” “New York Times” journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman portray Harp as very loyal to Trump. She even writes him “adoring” letters, the book says. One letter ended with the words: “You are everything to me.”

Harp said during Trump's first term in office (2017 to 2021) that she survived bone cancer thanks to the president's health care laws because it gave her access to active ingredients that had not yet been approved. According to an annual report to Congress, Harp earns $150,000 a year. The cash gift corresponds to almost a third of her annual salary.

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A White House spokesman defended the gifts. The spokesman referred to Trump's "long-standing practice of handing out Christmas presents to people close to him, including occasionally to employees and advisers." The gifts are unrelated to the recipients' tasks and are therefore "fully permissible according to the relevant legal and ethical standards."

Harp used to work as a television presenter for a right-wing broadcaster. It recently became known that Harp was one of the few people in Trump's environment who secretly changed planes with the US President shortly before the presidential plane, Air Force One, was scheduled to fly back from the NATO summit in Ankara in July. According to media reports, the reason for the secret transfer from Air Force One to a smaller military plane was a death threat from Iran.

According to the Washington Post, White House Oval Office chief Walt Nauta also received a $20,000 gift from the president. Nauta has an annual salary of $175,000.

AFP/gold