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President Donald Trump has doled out around $150,000 in cash gifts to three young, loyalist White House employees, including his controversial executive assistant Natalie Harp.
The gifts were detailed on disclosure forms, which federal workers are required to fill out each year. The payments were officially listed as “Cash Gift for Holidays” on all three of the staffers’ disclosures.
Each payment was $45,000 in cash gifts, amounting to around a 33 percent increase in the staffers’ annual salaries. The payments could violate a federal law prohibiting salaries from being supplemented by other sources, including through the disbursement of cash gifts.
Trump is “clearly trying to make it easier for them financially to work in government service at the White House,” former White House ethics chief Richard Painter told The Washington Post. “You can’t do that.”
The payments were gifted to young women who work closely with Trump, including Harp, who is 35; 26-year-old Chamberlain Harris, who serves as deputy director of Oval Office operations; and 31-year-old communications adviser Margo Martin.
Trump made at least one additional cash gift to his longtime aide and confidante Walt Nauta, paying him $20,000, the disclosures revealed.
Harp is notable for being a devoted figure within the Trump White House, rarely leaving the president’s side and frequently providing him with paper copies of accolades or positive headlines from a portable printer she carries with her, earning her the nickname of the “human printer.” She also helps Trump write his Truth Social posts, which he reads and approves before they are posted.
Harp’s presence around Trump has faced increased scrutiny after letters she sent him were published last month.
“You are all that matters to me,” Harp wrote in one of her missives to Trump. “I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”
“I want things to always be right between us,” Harp wrote in another letter, concluding with the words, “With all my heart, Natalie.”
Harp’s letters and constant close proximity to Trump have sparked rumors of a possible romance between the president and his favorite staffer. Those rumors swelled when a video went viral of Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, walking away when Harp approached the president during the Freedom 250 Grand Prix race in August.
In mid-August, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) claimed that Trump doesn’t really want the job of president, but instead wants to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” on a plane gifted to him by the country of Qatar.
Trump later appeared outraged when a reporter in the White House press gaggle inquired about Ossoff’s comments.
“Quiet, quiet, quiet — you’re very disrespectful. … Fake news — Fake news!” Trump rambled at the reporter. “You’re a loud, boisterous person, you’re fake news, be quiet. Be quiet! You’re a fake reporter, and you report fake news.”
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