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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Sarah Matthews, a deputy White House press secretary during President Donald Trump 's first term, said this week that White House aide Natalie Harp's closeness to Trump had "alarmed" the Secret Service and unnerved his 2024 campaign staff.
Matthews' comments, made during an appearance on CNN's Laura Coates Live on Monday, came a day after Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, singled out Harp by name at a campaign rally , accusing Trump of preferring to "travel with Natalie" instead of doing his job.
"They tried to get her to not stay at Bedminster that summer while they were on the campaign trail, because even campaign staff recognized that it was a weird relationship between the two," Matthews said, referring to efforts by Trump's 2024 campaign staff to keep Harp from staying with him at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.
"So what did Natalie Harp do? She found a workaround. She stayed in the women's locker room all summer long. So I think that it's fair to point out the sycophancy of her in particular, and their close relationship."
Newsweek reached out to Matthews for comment.
Ossoff made the comment Sunday while criticizing Trump's handling of the war in Iran and the situation onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.
"While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings," Ossoff told the crowd. "He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar."
Asked Monday by MS Now's Jen Psaki why he mentioned Harp specifically, Ossoff said he had heard the aide described as Trump's "security blanket" and argued that senior staff was telling the president "what he wants to hear" rather than what he needs to hear "and the nation is at war."
Trump was asked about the remarks Monday in the Oval Office. He dismissed Ossoff as a Pee-wee Herman look-alike and did not directly address the substance of the comment, instead pivoting to defend his White House ballroom construction project as a security and infrastructure upgrade.
The exchange escalated further that day when CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes asked Trump in the Oval Office to respond to Ossoff's remarks. Trump repeatedly told Holmes to be quiet and called her "a fake reporter." Hours later, the official White House Rapid Response account posted on X that Holmes' children would one day be "sickened and embarrassed" by her question, drawing swift condemnation from journalists and former Trump aides, including Matthews.
In a statement shared with Newsweek , White House spokesman Davis Ingle criticized Ossoff's record and rhetoric.
“Jon Ossoff is a feminine theater kid who voted to massively raise taxes, give illegal immigrants free taxpayer-funded healthcare, and defund federal immigration enforcement and Border Patrol. Lightweight Jon’s rhetoric is cringeworthy, but his extreme voting record is dangerous,” he said.
During the campaign, Harp earned the nickname "human printer" for carrying a portable printer so she could hand Trump paper copies of news articles, a habit that grew out of his preference for reading news on paper rather than a screen. She has also posted to Trump's Truth Social account on his behalf, a role that has continued since he named her executive assistant to the president in January 2025.
Harp's father, an estate agent who founded a consultancy for travel companies, died by suicide in 2020. After his death, she and her brother became estranged, the latter said.
Multiple outlets, including The New York Times , have reported concerns about Harp's relationship with Trump. The Secret Service reportedly came to view her as a security consideration, while aides, including incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, were reportedly unsettled by her access, according to Regime Change , by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
Matthews echoed those reports Monday, saying it was fair to point out that Harp's closeness to Trump had alarmed the Secret Service.
Harp was also one of three aides, along with Dan Scavino and Walt Nauta, who accompanied Trump on a decoy military flight out of Turkey last month amid a reported security threat, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flew separately.
Matthews, who resigned as deputy press secretary hours after the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and later testified before the House committee investigating it, said Monday that Harp's position puts her in the public spotlight.
"You are a public figure," Matthews said of high-ranking officials like Harp, adding that Harp "can't be absolved from any attack."
She also said it was fair to report that members of Trump's 2024 campaign staff had tried to prevent Harp from staying with him at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club by declining to give her a room there.
Other Trump allies pushed back on Ossoff's comments. Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican, called them "sexist and misogynistic" in a post on X, arguing that "attractive women can be qualified, hard workers, and in positions of power."
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin also defended Harp, describing her as "incredibly hardworking, talented, principled, and loyal."
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, meanwhile, attacked Ossoff directly on X, calling him a "radical, extremist Dumocrat."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously defended Harp as "one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump's team."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Sam Wilson .
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