Donald Trump’s ever-present aide Natalie Harp appeared to abandon her usual post by the president’s side as Melania Trump made a rare White House appearance.
The 56-year-old first lady resurfaced publicly for the first time in more than a month on Thursday, emerging from the White House holding hands with her 80-year-old husband before speaking about the expansion of her Fostering the Future Initiative in the Rose Garden.
Harp, the president’s 35-year-old executive assistant, did not appear in photos of the event taken by AP, Getty, or Reuters. Her apparent absence is striking for an aide who has been seemingly glued to Trump’s side—from his secret flight out of Turkey last month to his weekend jaunt to his New Jersey golf club.
She had been with Trump at least 18 days in the last month—a period in which Melania has not been photographed with her husband once.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The two women are locked in a secret power struggle, according to Trump biographer Michael Wolff.
The author wrote in a post on his Substack newsletter Howl that Melania was largely absent from the 2024 campaign trail because she did not want to share his side with Harp.
“Melania, whose appearances with her husband were carefully negotiated and choreographed, would not show up if Harp was around,” Wolff wrote. “Since Harp was always around, Melania never was—appearing with her husband only in the last week of the campaign.”
But Harp’s presence has only grown since Trump returned to the White House—while Melania has all but faded from view.
A Daily Beast analysis revealed that the first lady had not been seen since July 19 until Thursday. It also found she has only been seen in public 38 days this year.
Harp, a former right-wing TV host who now serves as a kind of gatekeeper to the president outside the usual chain of command, has drawn scrutiny amid White House leaks about her obsessive behavior toward Trump.
The Daily Beast on Thursday published, in full, two letters that Harp wrote to Trump in which she declares, “You are all that matters to me” and tells him she is envious of women “whose only job seems to be to talk with you and look pretty.”
Amid concerns from the Secret Service and White House officials, the president’s top staff has made “subtle moves” to curb how much time Harp spends at the president’s side, but to no avail, MS NOW reported on Wednesday, citing an inside source.
“She is just persistent and not realizing that’s what they were trying to do,” the person said.
Melania, who declined to move into the White House after her husband’s return to office and is believed to have decamped to New York instead, made an attempt at a joke to acknowledge her extended absences while speaking at the event on Thursday.
“I heard you missed me. Here I am,” she said with a laugh. “Here I am! Welcome to the White House.”
