President Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump puts his relationship with top aide Natalie Harp under the microscope: ‘Why is she with him?’
Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, publicly questioned his relationship with executive assistant Natalie Harp in a Substack essay published on September 30. She asked why Harp is with the 80-year-old president “practically 24 hours a day.”
The essay was a broader critique of Donald’s behavior toward women.
“One thing that constantly mystifies me is the extent to which people on the right overlook just how creepy all of this is,” wrote Mary, who’s a clinical psychologist, writer and podcaster.
“I mean, his relationships with younger women, very young women. Why is that okay with people? It’s dysfunctional to the point of deviance,” she continued
Pinpointing Harp, Mary said she was referring to “a 35-year-old woman who, by all accounts, is with Donald practically 24 hours a day.”
‘Why is she with him?’
Mary pointed to a July incident in which Harp was among a handful of people transferred with the president from Air Force One to a smaller military plane in Turkey. The transfer followed intelligence about a possible Iranian threat to the presidential aircraft.
Harp traveled in a catering truck used as a covert transfer with the president, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and aide Walt Nauta. Cabinet members, other staffers and journalists remained aboard the larger aircraft.
“What is she doing there? Why is she with him?” Mary wrote. “Why is it that, out of that tiny number of people, he decided that she’s one of four who should not be blown up?”
She also cited personal notes Harp has written to Donald, including one that read, “You were the center of my universe.”
Mary then challenged Donald’s defenders directly: “How do you spin the fact that this decrepit deviant spends practically 24 hours a day with a woman 45 years younger than he is who is not his wife, not his daughter?” she asked.
The wider essay on Donald Trump and women
The passage about Harp was part of a broader argument about what Mary described as a decades-long pattern. She pointed to recent Oval Office remarks in which the president spoke about women thanking him for making Washington safer.
She also cited his 1994 appearance on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” During the appearance, Donald gestured toward his chest while discussing his then-1-year-old daughter Tiffany Trump and said, “We don’t know about this part yet.”
Mary also listed past comments Donald made about daughter Ivanka Trump, including a 2006 remark on The View: “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her,” Donald said.
Mary wrote that Donald has “revealed just how deeply misogynistic this country is in ways we can no longer ignore.”
Cash gifts disclosed in financial forms
Annual financial disclosures published by the White House in early September showed that Donald gave Harp a $45,000 cash gift. Two other young female aides received the same amount: communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris.
The forms described the money as a “cash gift for holidays.” Each of the three women earns $150,000 a year, making the gift equal to 30% of their annual salary. Nauta, who earns $175,000, reported a $20,000 gift.
A White House spokesperson said Donald has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including employees and aides in government and the private sector. Spokesperson Davis Ingle also said the gifts were legal.
Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, criticized the payments on X. “A White House staffer is not your Fifth Avenue doorman,” he wrote.