U.S. President Donald Trump's 35-year-old assistant Natalie Harp has drawn attention for accompanying him to his New Jersey golf club for two consecutive weekends, with a Democratic senator's comment about the pair triggering a White House response.
Harp, described by the New York Times as Trump's "Binkie" – a term for a pacifier or comfort object – is one of the few aides who knows the president's phone password. She has been nicknamed the "human printer" for instantly printing news reports and social media posts for Trump to read.
She was also among a small group of staff permitted to join Trump on a secret flight during a NATO summit in July, when the president was evacuated amid a credible missile threat.
Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, said at a campaign rally that Trump "doesn’t want to do the job" and "wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."
The White House condemned the remark as degrading toward a female staff member, with communications director Steven Cheung calling Ossoff an "extremist Dumocrat."
Harp, a former One America News Network host, has said Trump's signing of the Right-to-Try Act in 2019 saved her life by allowing access to experimental cancer treatment.
