With the growing attention being given to Trump handler/confidante Natalie Harp, I looked up this November 2024 Times article which captures some of the relationship …

“You are all that matters to me,” she wrote in one of the letters, which were seen by The New York Times. The letters’ authenticity was confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of them.

“I don’t ever want to let you down,” Ms. Harp wrote, thanking Mr. Trump for being her “Guardian and Protector in this Life.”

In another letter, she told Mr. Trump that she wanted to get back to “that synergy” she used to have with him, where “we’d talk about everything and nothing.”

“I want to bring you joy,” she wrote, “to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’”

At the White House, Ms. Harp is likely to serve a role unlike any presidential adviser in modern history.

Given that Natalie Harp is not only a conventionally attractive women but also Trump’s type, there’s an obvious and understandable inclination to imagine that they are involved in a sexual relationship. Perhaps they are. But my best guess is that the relationship is more akin to an emotional support pillow/blanket. If they are having an affair, mostly who cares? There are so many other higher priority dangers this rapidly-fading, degenerate man-child poses to our country and our future. If he’s receiving some kind of emotional soothing from Harp in whatever form better he get it there than from invading more countries.

The more public-relevant issue with Harp is that she appears, from pretty credible reporting, to be a key vector for Trump’s incoming and outgoing information. She notoriously carries with her a portable printer and batteries so she can print out flattering press coverage. If you’re familiar with Trump’s Truth Social feed it’s clear that he frequently bases new de facto policies, attacks, demands … what have you, on things that come from far-right sites or absurd Twitter threads. So like new claims of vandalism, justifications for his actions that need new rationales. There’s this feedback loop of randoms trying to come up with justifications, arguments, new forms of retaliation. Then Trump sees them adopts them as his own. They’re no less stupid or dangerous or absurd but like Frankenstein’s monster they become real, if no less disfigured, when he brings them to life and invests them with the power of the American presidency. Harp seems to be the vector for a lot of that. Reporting also suggests that when he fires off new demands or threats or whatever else it’s often Harp who is clicking “send”.

Needless to say there doesn’t appear to be any shortage of sycophantic idiots in the second Trump White House. She may simply have taken over some of the role once occupied by Dan Scavino who has now ascended to bigger things. So it’s not like she’s the problem. Perhaps more like she’s the current executor or actuator of the problem. In any case, she’s an important figure beyond just rumor and jokes.