Jimmy Kimmel has conjured up a vomit-inducing image of Donald Trump and his aide Natalie Harp.
Harp has become an ever-present shadow in Trump’s court and is known as the “human printer” for the way she feeds him news stories and social media posts.
During Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! cold open, the veteran late-night host touched on the shock media ban that has seen the president bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
Harp, 35, helped prompt the ban, according to the Wall Street Journal, which says she showed him MS Now footage “criticizing his administration” ahead of the 80-year-old’s social media announcement.
“Some reports say that the president of the president’s fan club, human printer Natalie Harp, showed him a bunch of negative coverage from political CNN and MS Now, and that is when he made this decision to kick them to the curb,” Kimmel said, before creating an unsettling image.
“Poor Natalie Harp, can you imagine how many diapers she had to change after that incident? Let’s get you up on the koala changing table, sir.”
Sources told Politico that Trump had made the call while several of his top aides—including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles—were out of town.
Harp’s close relationship with Trump was laid bare in a pair of letters obtained and published by the Daily Beast, which revealed that she had told Trump she was “unworthy” of him. She also told him that “You are all that matters to me,” and revealed: “I don’t want to ever let you down.”
“I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them ‘alive.’ Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!’” Trump announced on Truth Social on Friday.
The three outlets on Monday filed a lawsuit in federal court in D.C. to overturn the ban, which they said infringed their rights under the First Amendment and Fight Amendment of the Constitution.
Trump hit back shortly after.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” he said in a second Truth Social post. “It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped
By that afternoon, however, he had adopted an altogether gloomier outlook, revealing that he expected to lose the suit.
“They have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the Planet,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to a lawsuit filed by CNN in 2018.
“The Judge’s name is Tim Kelly, and he was, sadly, appointed by ‘TRUMP.’ In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal because Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World.”
The president received almost-instant retribution for the ban, after the five major networks—including Fox News—mutually agreed to boycott him by removing the White House press pool cameras.
That meant that when he held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the White House South Lawn on Monday for his new $13 million helicopter landing pad, no usable recordings existed.
Trump—flanked by men in hard hats and high-vis—spoke inaudibly, his voice drowned out by Marine One.
He then climbed aboard the chopper with Harp, where they flew to Joint Base Andrews ahead of a flight to New York, where he was due to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
