The White House social media team took time to lash out at a reporter after the journalist pointed out that Donald Trump’s aide Natalie Harp was among the aides following the president to his golf club in Ireland this weekend.
The Rapid Response 47 account, which is often the vessel for the White House to reprimand reporters it claims are being unfair to the president, referred to independent journalist Aaron Rupar as a “sick, deluded freak” after Rupar posted on his X account, “Look who made the trip to Ireland! #TravelWithNatalie”, using a hashtag he has used to document instances where Harp has been spotted close by the president’s side.
“President Trump does, in fact, travel with staff. Aaron, on the other hand, is a sick, deluded freak (in his 40s) who sits behind a keyboard and posts creepy things like this,” wrote the White House account.
Rupar replied: “I know being in my 40s makes me too old for the president but I’m at peace with it.”
Trump spent the weekend in Ireland at his Trump International Golf Links resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, where he is watching the Irish Open.
Attention has surrounded the 35-year-old Harp after the publication of media reports documenting the unconventional close relationship she has with the president turned heads in Washington circles. Harp, who has worked for Trump since 2022, was described in articles as Trump’s “Human Printer”, in charge of hauling around an actual portable printer and using it to print off positive news coverage and statements from the president’s allies praising his work in the White House. Other reports revealed that Harp has been known to leave deeply personal notes for the president, to the extent that it supposedly alarmed members of the Secret Service.
A report from the Washington Post last week also revealed that Harp was among a group of three close aides who received cash gifts of $45,000 over the holiday season last year.
The White House has furiously denied that Harp has an inappropriate relationship with the president and Republicans have attacked the media for the focus on a young, female aide. Democrats, meanwhile, have leaned into lobbing attacks at the president over the reports and say they reinforce an image of corruption and unmoored behavior surrounding Trump in his second presidency.
Jon Ossoff, a Georgia senator running for re-election, kicked off a wave of controversy earlier in the summer when he quipped that Trump was focused solely on “build[ing] his ballroom and travel[ing] with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace”, referring to the Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.
Harp has not commented publicly about the situation at all, and has shyed away from even appearances on friendly, conservative media networks and outlets since the controversy around her work began.
The president’s second term unleashed him and his allies against the media like never before. New restrictions were put on the White House press corps by the White House press team last year, and the press team now directly controls the assignments in the White House press pool, for the first time. Reporters are no longer allowed to roam parts of the White House grounds without escort, including areas around the press office.
Those restrictions were even tighter at the Pentagon, where a number of media organizations moved reporters out of the building rather than comply with demands from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that they decline to publish nonpublic information. That dispute escalated into a lawsuit filed against the Pentagon by the New York Times, leading to Hegseth declaring the press office a classified space in an effort to spite and punish journalists, and restrict their access while evading legal blowback.
Trump’s own fury against the media has escalated in his second term, in the wake of his two impeachments and the January 6 attack on Congress. He now frequently spars with reporters in the White House pool, refusing to answer individual questions after asking reporters which outlets they work for — or, in some cases, directly hurling verbal abuse at reporters, mostly women, insulting their appearance and networks.
His most frequent target is CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, whom he often chastises in full view of the cameras for not smiling during press availabilities.
