Donald Trump’s contempt for The New York Times isn’t exactly new. Indeed, the Republican issued an unsettling threat of sorts in the run-up to the presidential election, declaring during a podcast interview, “Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them.”
It’s not yet clear what, exactly, the president-elect intends to do to the newspaper, but the Times nevertheless remains on his mind. On Monday night, for example, shortly after midnight, Trump used his social media platform to throw another Times-related tantrum, urging the outlet to “apologize to its readers” for its coverage of him, accusing the Times of publishing “phony ‘junk,’” insisting that the media giant does “no fact checking,” and calling reporter Maggie Haberman “Magot Hagerman.”
And what, pray tell, prompted the president-elect to lash out again? It’s tough to say with certainty, but it probably had something to do with this week’s Times’ report, written by Haberman and Jonathan Swan, on a Trump aide named Natalie Harp.
A 33-year-old former far-right cable host, Ms. Harp is nearly always at Mr. Trump’s side. She has written him a series of devotional letters, including one that said, “You are all that matters to me.” Once, when Mr. Trump was playing golf in Scotland, she ran behind his cart to keep him up to date with positive stories and social media posts.
There was some talk during the 2024 race about Trump’s “human printer,” referring to an aide who would follow the candidate around with a portable printer and a battery pack, handing him printed reports that would make him happy. That aide was reportedly Harp. (The Trump transition team declined to make Harp available to the Times for an interview, according to the outlet. Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, told the Times that Harp was “‘trusted and valued’ and credited her ‘work ethic and dedication’ for helping Trump win the election.” Neither MSNBC nor NBC News has independently confirmed the Times’ reporting. )
According to the Times’ report, Harp will, after Inauguration Day, sit right outside the Oval Office and act as “the conduit for a largely unsupervised flow of information to and from the president and helping him with his social media feed.”
That wouldn’t be especially notable were it not for two things.
First is the unusual relationship Harp appears to have with Trump. The young aide not only reportedly wrote the president-elect a letter that said, “You are all that matters to me,” the Times’ report highlighted a variety of related messages, including one in which Harp wrote about getting 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 also reportedly wrote to Trump, “to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’” In a different message, Harp thanked Trump for being her “Guardian and Protector in this Life,” the Times reported.
We can probably all think of subordinates who wrote over-the-top correspondence to their employers — Harriet Miers’ letters to George W. Bush come to mind — but it’s fair to say that Harp’s effusive messages to Trump belong in a different category.
The other problem, however, is what the so-called “human printer” is actually printing for the incoming GOP president. The Times’ report noted, for example, that one of Harp’s go-to news sources is a fringe and conspiratorial website called Gateway Pundit. It led the article to note that Harp has been accused of serving as “an instant enabler” of Trump’s “impulses.”
None of this bodes well for those concerned about the flow of information in the next Trump White House.
But stepping back, there’s a related angle to this story: Someone provided the Times with copies of Harp’s letters, offering yet another timely reminder that Team Trump’s pattern of infighting, backbiting and sabotage will almost certainly continue.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
