President Donald Trump, 80, takes his blonde aide Natalie Harp with him everywhere because she’s his “human binkie,” according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
Haberman, a Trump biographer, offered the striking description Sunday morning on Connect with Jacob Soboroff while discussing why Harp, 35, was among the select few aides who accompanied Trump during his mysterious departure from Turkey in July.
Trump snuck off Air Force One in a catering truck before flying out on a military plane with key administration officials, while leaving the press and other aides on board the presidential plane.
“I can guess why Natalie Harp, Walt Nauta and Dan Scavino were with him,” Haberman said.
“Natalie Harp, because she is sort of his Binkie, for lack of a better way of putting it—his comfort blanket.”
Harp, 35, has been seen by the president’s side constantly over the past few months, accompanying him on official business and to the golf course. There is even speculation that Harp could be the wild card in the race to replace departing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Haberman suggested Trump may have handpicked some of the aides who provide him the most comfort for the cloak-and-dagger escape from Ankara.
“Walt Nauta because he is something similar [to Harp], he also always carries that brown leather briefcase that became very familiar in term one,” Haberman said.
The briefcase, she said, carries Trump’s must-haves: hairspray, Tic Tacs “and all kinds of stuff.”
She said Dan Scavino was likely there because he’s one of Trump’s “closest aides, and has been with Trump for 30-some odd years first as a caddy on his Westchester golf course.”
There may also have been a more practical reason for bringing Harp and Scavino along: both have access to Trump’s social media accounts.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Haberman’s reporting on Trump and his administration has drawn the president’s ire numerous times in the past. He lashes out at her through his social media platform regularly, and is a long-time critic of the New York Times.
Haberman and co-author Johnathan Swan’s bombshell book about the Trump presidency is on track to become the bestselling nonfiction book of the year, despite Trump’s repeated attempts to sink it.
