Natalie Harp was back in the Oval Office with Donald Trump on Friday, one day after First Lady Melania Trump announced she would not accompany the president to the GOP’s midterm convention next week.
Melania, 56, will not join her husband in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10, a White House official told the Washington Examiner. The president had initially been scheduled to speak only on Sep. 10, but plans changed amid lackluster buzz for the event. Only two congressional Republicans in battleground districts have confirmed their attendance to the Daily Beast.
Melania’s absence fits with her generally light record of public appearances with the president, as the Daily Beast has chronicled.
Meanwhile, Harp, Trump’s devoted, 35-year-old aide, was photographed smiling once again while the president spoke to reporters on Friday before jetting off to his New Jersey golf course for the holiday weekend.
Harp is one of the 80-year-old president’s closest aides. A former host on right-wing network One America News, Harp makes $150,000 annually as Trump’s executive assistant—a job that often means being his “human printer,” showing him stories, conducting internet searches for things he wants to hear, and helping him post on Truth Social.
Harp’s closeness to the president garnered increased attention last month when the Daily Beast published two adoring letters she wrote to Trump in 2023.
“You are all that matters to me,” Harp writes. “I don’t want to ever let you down.” She also calls Trump her “Guardian and Protector in this life.”
Trump, in turn, has boasted that Harp will “never leave” him.
A new poll by Daily Mail/JL Partners found that a plurality of Americans—42 percent—want more information about Harp’s role. Only 22 percent said they were satisfied, while 36 percent said they were unsure.
Republicans were generally less curious about her role; only 29 percent wanted answers. By contrast, 58 percent of Democrats wanted to learn more about her.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
