How much is Natalie Harp shaping world events? Trump's 'binky' should be a scandal

The Washington press corps is Donald Trump's true constituency. He speaks for them, brings attention to them, enlarges their standing, enriches their bosses, even when or especially when he attacks them. So reporters are not going to tell a "narrative" about his aging that's on par with the one they told about Joe Biden's. If they can avoid it, they will.

Yes, I know. The backlash against Jon Ossoff has been suggestive in its excess. Mere hours after his joke, about Trump preferring to "travel with Natalie" than do the hard work of being president, there was a coordinated effort to attack the Georgia senator. The collective freak-out suggests Trump is sensitive to the appearance of needing a full-time babysitter (from White House aide Natalie Harp). Some liberals believe the right is trying to stop old-man narratives from forming, even at the risk of bringing more attention to Trump's infirmity. Indeed, according to Brian Stelter, "Google searches for Trump’s executive assistant Natalie Harp spiked by 5,000 percent. News outlets hurried to meet the demand for information."

But just because majorities are focused on something does not mean the Washington press corps will focus on it, too. Remember, these are people who choose to be humiliated by the president on live television. He calls them pigs. He calls them traitors. He calls them scum. Yet they don't defend themselves. They don't defend each other. Politics is an elaborate, cynical game. For them, there are no consequences. All that matters is attention, and for that reason, every deviation from the norm can be rationalized in terms of Trump being Trump.

Last month, Times podcaster Ezra Klein asked "the Trump whisperer" if she felt he has "changed with age or that age is slowing him in meaningful ways." Maggie Haberman said she "didn’t notice anything meaningfully different." But in an interview she did with the president in preparation for her new book, what she did notice is that he seemed like "pure Trump."

He was focused on revenge, she said. He was "very obsessed with the renovation projects." "It’s Day 17 of the war, and he’s telling us: Here’s my models of the ballroom," she said, adding that he "didn’t have a care in the world." She said she didn't "subscribe to this dementia conversation" but also didn't "think Trump is some fundamentally different human being."

"I think he is much more himself, which is a product of age in general."

The older Biden got, the more it justified telling the old-man narrative. The older Trump gets, however, the more it justifies telling narratives about Trump being Trump.

Seriously, what is going on with Trump’s rear end here? It looks like he has some sort of contraption back there

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 16, 2026 at 10:43 AM

Some believe the press corps might finally be turning against Trump. They point to reporting by Haberman in her book with Jonathan Swan. In it, they characterize Natalie Harp as playing the role of nanny. She reassures the president, encourages him, comforts him. She apparently leaves him "love letters" and stands ready to present him with glowing praise posted to social media whenever the president has big feels. She writes some of his Truth Social posts. During an MS Now interview, Haberman described Harp as Trump's "binky."

But "binky," or security blanket, is not a sign of a turning tide. Haberman's casual use of the word is the tell. It suggests the degree to which she and others have internalized Trump's deterioration. It's so normal as to be invisible. When it does come to the fore, as it did this week, it's set in the context of politics as usual. Short of a game-changing event, and I have no idea what that might be, the press corps won't make his age an issue. He is a Republican, after all. He represents them. If he were a Democrat, well, that would be different.

It should be a scandal, though

From yesterday morning's Times: "She never takes a day off, not even on Sunday. She works out of the Oval Office and she’s got a regular seat on Marine One. She texts with world leaders on the president’s behalf. She stays up late with him drafting social media posts."

The "she" here is executive assistant Natalie Harp. If it's true that she's involved in drafting the president's social media posts, late into the night, when no one else is around, that would make her one of the most powerful people in the world. Unelected, unvetted, unchecked.

And unhinged.

She got into a screaming match one time with the Secret Service when there was no more room in the car. So she got into the trunk. Officials from Trump's 2024 campaign tried to keep her away from the president, but she spent the summer sleeping in the women's locker room at his golf resort. She leaves him notes saying "you are all that matters to me” and “I don’t ever want to let you down” and “I want to bring you joy [and] feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’” She says Trump cured her bone cancer. (He didn't.) She quotes him like she's quoting scripture. Her brother suggested that crushing on powerful men is a habit going back to her teens when George W Bush was in office. "Since she was like 16, she's had an obsession," Preston Harp said. "Her dream came true finally."

With his social media posts, the president moves markets. He influences the global order. He negotiates terms of war and peace. He defines the national conversation. And he issues threats, as he did when he promised Iran that "a whole civilization will die tonight."

But who's writing them? Is it a deranged 35-year-old woman who bears a striking resemblance to Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and who, per the Times, "is never not there, ever-present with a wide smile and her eyes fixed on the president"? Harp shows Trump drafts for Truth Social, then logs into his account to publish them, The Guardian said. These have included AI-generated content of the Obamas as apes, of Trump as a fighter jet pilot dropping feces on No Kings protesters, and of Trump as the pope and Jesus Christ.

How much is she shaping world events?

If Trump's "binky" were a scandal, we might know.

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