Jon Ossoff took aim at Donald Trump during a Sunday rally in Atlanta, but his sharpest jab landed somewhere unexpected: the president’s relationship with White House executive assistant Natalie Harp. The Georgia Democrat folded Harp into a broader attack on Trump’s leadership, work habits, and decision-making.
The Georgia senator mocked Trump for traveling with his executive assistant on the Qatar-donated presidential jet
Ossoff contrasted Trump’s lifestyle with that of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, who he said had spent nearly nine months at sea. He accused the president of “lying a nation into war” and treating Americans and military personnel as “pawns,” while claiming Trump naps during his “meetings, golfs and trades stocks” instead of doing his job (via The Daily Beast).
Then came the punchline. Ossoff argued that Trump appeared more interested in building his White House ballroom and traveling with Harp aboard the presidential aircraft donated by Qatar. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie,” Ossoff told the Atlanta crowd, referring to the jet as an “apparently defenseless flying palace.”
The jab landed at a particularly convenient moment. Just days earlier, Trump had flown back to Washington with Harp aboard the Qatar-donated plane after spending the weekend at his New Jersey golf club. Harp has also become a familiar figure around Trump during his second term.
Harp’s unusually close access to Trump has become a talking point of its own. The Daily Beast, citing reporting from New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their book Regime Change, said Trump once described Harp as someone who loved him as deeply as his wife and children. The book also claimed she left personal, affectionate messages in areas of his private quarters.
Haberman later gave that relationship another layer while discussing a separate security incident with MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff. She referred to Harp as Trump’s “comfort blanket,” portraying her as a calming presence during his reported departure from Ankara after an alleged Iranian assassination threat. Harp was reportedly on the military aircraft with Trump, while several other top officials stayed aboard a decoy Air Force One.
