The much-discussed ballroom construction plan in the White House’s East Wing may have been Donald Trump‘s pet project, but recent reports suggest that the POTUS’s political aide Natalie Harp has been one of the biggest advocates for the venture. In fact, author Michael Wolff has suggested that Harp’s growing influence on the president has landed the executive assistant in First Lady Melania Trump’s crosshairs.
Michael Wolff talks about Natalie Harp’s role in Donald Trump’s decision
While discussing Donald Trump’s inner circle of female aides, Wolff claimed that Natalie Harp played a pivotal part in the president’s decision to demolish the White House’s East Wing in favor of constructing his proposed $400m ballroom.
“Even people within the White House say that Natalie was one of the people who argued for the ballroom and getting rid of the East Wing,” the journalist noted. “And people see this around Trump that she is working. She has worked to put herself into the position that she is the woman closest to Donald Trump,” he added, as per The Mirror.
However, in her quest to land a seat at the big table, Natalie Harp and other such female aides of Donald Trump seem to have picked a beef with Melania. While journalist Joanna Coles described the executives in question as “mini-Melanias,” Wolff attributed this trend to Trump’s first-term White House communications director, Hope Hicks. He noted that the arrival of Hicks, who “looked like Melania,” kickstarted a “pattern of Trump’s female aides” being “confused with Melania” by the media.
Michael Wolff further added that Donald Trump’s dynamic with female aides like Natalie Harp, whom he referred to as the president’s “other wives,” had led to “tensions” between them and the First Lady. The author “specifically” singled out Hicks, which prompted Coles to insinuate that it was “really Natalie versus Melania.”
Notably, the White House’s East Wing, which would accommodate Trump’s proposed ballroom, traditionally contains the First Lady’s office.
