Donald Trump’s ever-present blonde aide, Natalie Harp, who is obsessively loyal to the president, was first devoted to another leader.
Before Trump, there was David Jeremiah, the pastor of a megachurch, Raw Story discovers.
Harp’s estranged brother, Preston Harp, described the church as “a megachurch financed by rich conservative Republicans”.
Jeremiah played an integral role in helping sell Trump, a “thrice-married, philandering businessman,” to Christian voters.
Harp, 35, started attending his sermons when she was 13, according to Preston. Around 2010, he said his mother and sister worked in the church office.
Preston was kicked out of the Harp house when he was 18 over his doubts about Christianity.
He said Natalie always preferred to be with Jeremiah rather than to hang out with him at church.
“I mostly went to the youth group on Sundays,” Preston told Raw Story, but “my sister chose to go with my parents to his sermons with all the adults and older people.”
Jeremiah, 85, is originally from Toledo, Ohio, but is now based in California, where he leads his megachurch and ministry, Turning Point for God. The pastor’s individual net worth is unknown, but his ministry rakes in $65 to $100 million a year, according to tax filings.
Jeremiah has faced several controversies, including spending $250,000 of his ministry’s money to help his book reach the best-seller list, which generated royalties for the pastor. Former Turning Point CFO George Hale called the practice “deceptive and unethical.” Jeremiah did not directly confirm or deny the bulk-buying claim. His apocalyptic sermons and literal teachings about hell and the Rapture have also been criticized as dogmatic or fear-based.
Professor J. Derrick Lemons, head of the Religion Department at the University of Georgia, has written about the Christian leaders that have influenced Trump. He explained how Jeremiah helped inspire evangelicals to vote for the 80-year-old who lacks a deep religious identity.
In 2016, Trump met with a number of powerful pastors at the Marriott Hotel in New York City to try and win over the evangelical base. Trump fielded specific questions from the group, which Lemons later discovered were planted.
Jeremiah, who denied endorsing Trump the year before, lobbed him a softball question about his stance on Israel.
“In an unofficial way, the whole meeting was set up like a multilevel marketing scheme primarily built on selling a product (Candidate Trump) to friends,” Lemons wrote.
“These pastors had experienced a conversion to Donald J. Trump like the conversion to Jesus Christ they had encouraged in many in their congregations.”
Jeremiah later distanced himself from the president, with Lemons speculating he had become “uncomfortable with what Trump kind of turned into.”
However, Harp’s devotion to Trump has only grown.
“You are all that matters to me,” Harp wrote to Trump in letters that were revealed in full by the Daily Beast, “I don’t want to ever let you down.”
“I’m a little surprised that Natalie Harp grew up in his church,” Lemons admitted. “David Jeremiah is the type who would talk about faith and how important it is to live out your faith and public life… he’s not particularly political.”
