Late-night comic Seth Meyers humiliated Donald Trump by imagining how the president goes about justifying to his wife the close relationship he enjoys with a young female aide.
Meyers, 52, whose jokes at the 80-year-old president’s expense have made him a frequent target of Trump’s anger, opened his show on Monday night by mocking the leader’s apparent inability to remember quite how long Chinese despot Xi Jinping had visited last week.
But his monologue quickly veered to first lady Melania Trump, 56, and the president’s personal assistant, Natalie Harp, 34.
“Was it two days of meetings and then one day of you basking in the glow of how much fun you had with your new best friend?” Meyers joked about Trump’s fawning praise for Xi after the Chinese leader’s departure. “Melania’s probably so sick of hearing you talk about it.”
The comedian then did an impression of Trump calling for the first lady’s attention. “‘Mel!!! Mel, wasn’t that just like, the best two days ever?’” he said. “Do you think Xi likes me? NO! Not Natalie Harp! PRESIDENT XI. X, I.”
Meyers then pivoted to joking about just some of the services Harp, 35, is known to perform for the president, 45 years her senior. “‘You’re lucky I have Natalie, Mel. Do you want to open my umbrella?’” he said. “‘Do you want to print off little articles for me to read on your portable printer? I didn’t think so, Mel!’”
Trump’s relationship with Harp, who earns $150,000 a year as special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president, has drawn mounting scrutiny over the past several months amid reports that their closeness has alarmed top administration officials and even the Secret Service.
Harp has become perhaps the most constant figure in Trump’s orbit during his second term. She accompanies him on domestic and foreign trips, handles much of his social media output, and uses a portable printer to feed him favorable news and posts.
The president himself has reportedly told aides that she is the only staffer who loves him as much as his wife and children, and predicted that, unlike others in his administration, she would never leave him.
Melania seems to be less smitten by Harp’s constant presence at the president’s side. CNN reported last month that a Republican close to the White House had said the first lady was deeply upset about the situation. Trump biographer Michael Wolff has also claimed that Melania now deliberately avoids public appearances when she knows Harp will also be there.
The Daily Beast has contacted White House for comment on this story.
