Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
The White House’s explanation for how a wildly racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys was posted to Donald Trump’s Truth Social page was always confusing. The Trump administration initially defended the video, then deleted the post about 12 hours after it went up. An anonymous White House official told NBC News, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”
This seemed like a clumsy attempt to shift the blame from Trump himself. Surely there isn’t some White House staffer who’s authorized to post unhinged rants and AI slop to the president’s feed at all hours of the night?
Well, as it turns out, there is: Natalie Harp, Trump’s executive assistant, a.k.a. “the human printer.” Buried in a Wall Street Journal analysis of Trump’s late-night posting binges is some reporting that identifies Harp as the aide behind both the racist Obamas meme and the AI-generated picture depicting Trump as Jesus, which he also deleted after blowback:
Earlier this year, at Trump’s direction, Harp posted a video that included racist imagery depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, and an AI-generated image of Trump as a Christ-like figure, people familiar with the matter said.
So why are “people familiar with the matter” pointing the finger at Harp now? The Journal piece suggests some of Harp’s colleagues don’t love that she keeps creating online messes that they have to clean up:
Harp has frustrated some White House officials because she typically doesn’t share draft posts with the chief of staff’s office, communications aides or national-security officials. Harp has told others she works for Trump and only listens to him.
In Harp’s defense, it sounds like all of this Truth Social drama is totally Trump-approved:
Natalie Harp, Trump’s executive assistant, plays an integral role in Trump’s Truth Social activity. She brings the president stacks of printed-out draft social-media posts for his approval. The proposed posts often recycle content from other accounts that Harp or advisers think would appeal to Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
Harp then logs onto the president’s account—at times outside of normal work hours—and posts batches of Trump-approved messages, the people said. Trump personally signs off on all of the content posted to his account. While Harp often posts content on Trump’s behalf, the president posts some messages himself, White House officials said.
We actually have some footage of Trump and Harp’s process, from a Fox News documentary series on the 2024 campaign.
So when @realDonaldTrump dumps a dozen or more Truth Social posts overnight — which has happened 44 times in this term, by the Journal’s count — there’s no way to know if Trump is behind the keyboard or if we’re looking at a queue of stuff Harp printed out for his approval hours earlier.
This insight into how our manic presidential posting sprees are made is interesting. But it doesn’t seem like Harp’s colleagues are going to achieve anything by venting their frustrations with her to the press. Sure, Harp’s methods are bonkers and she deserves a good amount of blame for bringing appalling Truth content to Trump’s attention. Despite the amusing nickname, she’s not just an appliance. But the primary person at fault here is the guy who gave Harp his Truth Social password and keeps approving all of these absolutely unhinged messages.
