Donald Trump took to Truth Social in the early hours of Tuesday to go on a lengthy rant about Maggie Haberman, likely set off by a recent article in The New York Times on his weird relationship with aide Natalie Harp.
“Will the failing New York Times apologize to its readers for getting years of “Trump” coverage so wrong. They write such phony “junk,” knowing full well how incorrect it is, only meaning to demean.” Magot Hagerman, a third rate writer and fourth rate intellect, writes story after story, always terrible, and yet I almost never speak to her. They do no fact checking, because facts don’t matter to them. I don’t believe I’ve had a legitimately good story in the NYT for years, AND YET I WON, IN RECORD FASHION, THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN DECADES. WHERE IS THE APOLOGY?”
The article, published Monday, detailed Harp’s questionable proximity to Trump since his 2020 presidential campaign. Known as the “human printer” by the rest of the Trump team, Harp has “established herself at the center of a fast-moving carousel of text messages, articles and tidbits directed at Mr. Trump,” the Times reported, which is apparently worrisome to other aides “at a moment when Mr. Trump appears more contemptuous than ever of attempts to manage or control him.” Haberman goes on to describe her as an “instant enabler of [Trump’s] impulses.” For every Truth Social rant or mean tweet, Harp is there.
Harp also freaked out the rest of Trump’s inner circle with steamy handwritten messages, writing, “you’re all that matters to me.… I’ll never let you down.” She also wrote to him that she wanted to reclaim the “synergy” they had. “We’d talk about everything and nothing.… I want to bring you joy,” Harp wrote. “To feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’” And it isn’t particularly one-sided either. The Times, which viewed the letters, reported that Trump apparently commented that Harp was the only member of his team that truly cared about him.
Harp first hit the scene in 2019, when she appeared on Fox News and started talking about how Trump saved her life by signing a law that gave her access to unspecified experimental drugs that helped treat her bone cancer. That launched her into a Republican National Convention speaking slot in 2020, and by 2022, she was a full-time aide to Trump.
These sort of stories are important because they bother him personally. Once he knows that people think a particular underling is the real power behind the throne he inevitably dumps them. This constant churn of anyone who tried to take a lead helps keep his team in turmoil and minimizes the harm they can do to the rest of us.