President Donald Trump's executive assistant Natalie Harp walks as Trump (not pictured) travels following a Camp David meeting of the cabinet, at Hagerstown Regional Airport in Hagerstown, Maryland, U.S., July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer
Natalie Harp's presence in President Donald Trump's inner circle has caused an avalanche of controversy, and now, a journalist and author has revealed to The Daily Beast why she might just be his most "unwell" staff member.
Initially joining Trump's orbit during his time between terms, Harp has emerged as one of his closest White House assistants, holding considerable power over the information that he sees and the messages his social media accounts share. Her devotion to him has also raised considerable alarms, with many observers likening it to an obsession, particularly as the various letters she has written for him continue to emerge.
On Sunday, author and journalist Kurt Andersen appeared as a guest on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, and discussed the situation surrounding Harp and explained why the uncertainties about her life that make her alarming as a political staffer would make her a "rich fictional character.
“She is a rich fictional character only because the whole nature of her motives and intentions are unclear,” Andersen told host Joanna Coles. “Except for like, whoa, she’s like a stalker who got the job."
Speaking further, Andersen argued that part of Trump's admiration for Harp comes from the sense that her feelings towards him are among the only authentic emotions he receives from his staff members, even as he "demands sycophancy" from all of them.
"he demands sycophancy from everyone, although it really seems and I really believe that in almost all of those cases, he knows it's transactional," Andersen explained. "He knows it's inauthentic because his own feelings are inauthentic, and he can't imagine authentic feelings because he has none other than 'I want [attention]' or 'pay attention to me,' you know. But in her case, from his talk about her and that one amazing line in Regime Change, where she's quoted as saying to his other aides, like, she's the only one that really cares about me, right? You'll leave me, you'll all leave me. She cares about me as much as my children and wife, you know. And his children and his wife don't seem to care about him."
Andersen also suggested that this overwhelming devotion to Trump could stem from potential mental problems, making her the most genuinely "unwell" member of his administration.
"I think she is more in a certain way unwell than the rest of them because she's so, you know, devoted in an uncanny, and as I say, maybe mentally disordered way," he explained.