Natalie Harp’s Role in Trump’s Humiliation of MAGA Aides Revealed
The president needed help from his favorite White House staff member to blast two of his top campaign advisers.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Donald Trump’s desperate Truth Social post that tried to distance him from two advisers who helped a pro-Russian regime was written and posted by Natalie Harp, it has been revealed.
On Wednesday, the 80-year-old president threw two of his longtime political aides—Chris LaCivita and James Blair—under the bus after a damning New York Times report revealed they had traveled to Republika Srpska, a small, self-governing area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for paid work to offer advice on how to win an upcoming election.
“Chris LaCivita and James Blair are outside consultants. They do not work for me, other than as outside consultants,” Trump posted on Tuesday amid immediate outrage at the report. “They are allowed to do work for others, just like all consultants in Washington, D.C. I do not have any idea who else they work for but will, on reflection, ask them and, if there’s a conflict, I will terminate them, immediately!”
Trump was not even aware that LaCivita and Blair had traveled to the Balkans to help the pro-Putin government, Politico’s Playbook reported. After seeking opinions from other advisers, Trump dictated his Truth Social post to Harp, who typed it up and shared it online.
A Republican source said the "knives are now fully out" for Chris LaCivita and James Blair for helping a pro-Russian regime during the crucial midterm period.
Truth Social/Donald Trump
Harp, who earns $150,000 a year as an executive assistant, is widely credited with assisting Trump’s frantic social media output.
This includes getting him to approve cringe-worthy AI-generated images and videos, and then logging into his account to reshare them en masse.
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Harp is reportedly the person who posted the racist video shared by Trump depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, as well as the blasphemous image of Trump as Jesus.
Natalie Harp is rarely far away from the president.
Nathan Howard/REUTERS
The Truth Social post Trump dictated to Harp on Wednesday was an extraordinary attempt by the president to back away from two of his top political lieutenants.
LaCivita co-managed his 2024 presidential campaign alongside White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, while Blair worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign in Florida and served as political director of Trump’s 2024 bid.
Chris LaCivita is seen as a key part of Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory.
Andrew Harnik/AP
Blair later served as White House deputy chief of staff, although he is currently on a leave of absence to lead MAGA Inc., the Trump-backed super PAC.
LaCivita and Blair have been highly criticized among the “Make America Great Again” crowd for being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide services to a foreign government during the crucial run-up to the Nov. 3 midterms, where the GOP is expected to suffer an electoral wipeout.
One Republican operative told the Daily Beast that the trip to support a party heavily aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin was “clearly a bad look” given the timing.
Chris Christie, the former Republican New Jersey governor, told Playbook: “If your top political advisors are not paying attention to the midterms and instead are paying attention to taking money off the table in a foreign country, that seems to indicate to me that they’ve moved on from Donald Trump as their top priority, and I think you’re going to see a lot of that.”
James Blair is heading a super PAC that is spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to avoid a midterm disaster for the GOP.
Brian Snyder/REUTERS
A source close to the president added to Playbook that Trump floating firing LaCivita and Blair came after months of frustration with how leadership is handling the midterm strategy.
“He has been livid for a while over how things have been heading, and he hates nothing more than when people make money off him, especially when those people abandon him like this,” the source said, adding Trump “could cut them off forever” if things look like they’re getting worse before Nov. 3.
In January, LaCivita dropped a lawsuit against the Daily Beast that he had filed over an article reporting that his consulting firm had been paid millions of dollars by the campaign through a variety of contracts.
LaCivita withdrew the suit without producing any discovery documents, including his tax returns. The Beast did not retract the story, apologize, or make any payment.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, LaCivita, and Blair for comment.
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