In a CNN interview, the estranged brother of Trump aide Natalie Harp recalled childhood moments that he said could explain his sister’s “obsession” with the president.
Natalie Harp’s brother says she has ‘unhealthy obsession’ with Trump
The brother of Trump aide Natalie Harp said that she has an “obsession” with the president after Sen. Jon Ossoff called her out by name at a rally.
Preston Harp, the brother of President Donald Trump’s aide Natalie Harp, said his sister “didn’t break out of the delusion that my mom raised us with,” and speculated that it draws her to the president.
“Trump is like everything that my mom taught us to respect,” he said in an Aug. 18 interview with CNN.
“My mom raised us that the idea of American exceptionalism was the correct way of looking at things, that the United States is the boss of the world,” Preston Harp said in the interview. “That, like, slavery was back then. That was normal. People weren’t bad because they had slaves.”
Natalie Harp has been in the spotlight after Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff drew conservative backlash for an Aug. 16 comment at a campaign rally that Trump only wants to “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
Ossoff was referencing reports that Harp accompanied Trump when he was quietly removed from Air Force One to another plane departing a NATO summit in Turkey, as White House reporters and administration officials, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, remained on board the initial aircraft. Critics called the comments sexist and misogynistic.
Now Preston Harp, who is estranged from his sister, is offering his own perspective as to why she and the president share a close bond. He said in the CNN interview that his sister’s “infatuation for Trump” comes from agenda items like removing books from school and attempts to “rewrite history.” He also said his sister has an “unhealthy obsession” with the president.
“I think that Trump’s best friends are people who are his fan club, and so she’s his biggest fan, and that’s probably why he likes her,” Preston said on CNN. “And like she’s good looking. She’s got a good personality.”
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Natalie Harp has shared a different reason for defending the president, though. A bone cancer survivor, she spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention about how the Trump-signed “Right to Try” law helped her get treatment. She vowed to dedicate her life to Trump, and has become a close aide.
The president’s son Eric Trump slammed the brother’s CNN interview as “absolute trash” in a post on X.
“Natalie is an incredible young woman — a cancer survivor, a genuinely good person, and arguably one of the hardest-working people in the White House,” Eric Trump said. “She’s deeply committed to my father, to her job, and to this country.”
Preston Harp recalled that even before Trump, his sister had an “obsession” with politics and that she has “written letters to other presidents,” specifically to President George W. Bush during the Iraq war.
“Her dream came true finally,” the brother said.
USA TODAY reached out to the White House for comment but did not hear back. Preston Harp was unable to speak to USA TODAY before publication.