A handwritten letter signed 'With all my heart, Natalie' has turned one of the White House's least-known aides into the most talked-about staffer in Washington. Natalie Harp, the 35-year-old executive assistant rarely seen more than a few feet from Donald Trump, reportedly told him she had been 'forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time.'
The letter, reported by The New York Times, arrives amid two weeks of intense scrutiny over Harp's role, sparked by her presence on a secretive evacuation flight out of Turkey and a viral jab from Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. Together, the episodes have turned an aide with no formal title into a flashpoint in America's culture war.
The Letter That Sparked a Firestorm
According to The New York Times, Harp wrote to Trump: 'I want things to always be right between us. I also know I've been distracted all week, forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time.' The note followed a golfing trip to Scotland, during which Harp apologised for being 'an embarrassment walking the course.'
The date of the letter has not been confirmed, though the newspaper's earlier reporting places a cluster of similar notes to 2023, a period the paper says 'unnerved people around him.' Harp closed the letter with the now-widely quoted line, 'With all my heart, Natalie.'
The Times' account is the latest in a series of stories built on the paper's review of correspondence and interviews with people close to the West Wing. It follows an earlier Times report that surfaced a separate letter in which Harp told the then-president-elect, 'You are all that matters to me.'
Unearthed letter from Natalie Harp to Trump:
— FactPost (@factpostnews) August 19, 2026
"I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time)." pic.twitter.com/sp303xfWkQ
A History of Proximity
Harp's attachment to Trump did not begin in the White House. She rose to his attention in 2019 as a One America News anchor after crediting him with saving her life for signing 'right to try' legislation that let her access an experimental treatment for bone cancer, a story that led to her speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Since formally joining Trump's staff in 2022, colleagues have described behaviour that goes beyond typical aide duties. According to The New York Times, Harp carried a printer and battery pack so Trump could have hard copies of briefings, and once ran behind his golf cart in Scotland to read him positive news coverage.
Other episodes have drawn particular attention. In October 2023, as reported by CNN, Harp rode in the boot of an SUV in Trump's motorcade after being told there was no room inside for the journey to a New York court appearance.
She spent part of that summer sleeping in a locker room at Trump's Bedminster golf club to remain near him. Her estranged brother, Preston Harp, told CNN that his sister has had an 'obsession' with presidents since she was a teenager and had written letters to other commanders-in-chief before Trump, adding that watching her reach the West Wing meant 'her dream finally came true.'
The Turkey Flight That Reignited the Story
The letter resurfaced only days after Harp's name became a flashpoint over national security. She was one of a handful of aides who accompanied Trump onto an alternate aircraft after he left a NATO summit in Turkey, a switch made following intelligence warnings about a possible Iranian threat to Air Force One.
Other officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, remained aboard what has been described as a decoy plane. Ossoff, the Georgia senator seeking re-election in November, seized on the episode at a rally in Atlanta, telling supporters that instead of governing, Trump 'wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar.'
Pressed on the remark by broadcaster Jen Psaki, Ossoff said the president retreats into 'a bubble of West Wing aides who are his security blanket to make him feel good about himself.' He added that 'the West Wing is full of sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear and enable him.'
The White House Response
The West Wing has pushed back firmly against the characterisation of Harp's role. Outgoing press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Times that Harp 'is one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump's team.' White House aide Steven Cheung separately accused Ossoff of 'denigrating hard working people serving their country' in a post on X.
Trump himself declined to address questions about Harp directly, instead attacking the CNN reporter who raised Ossoff's comments. Google search interest in Harp's name has since spiked, turning a low-profile aide with no official title into one of the most searched figures in American politics this week.
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