Innuendo and rumour: Who is Natalie Harp, the ‘human printer’ who follows Trump everywhere?

In a scene from Tucker Carlson’s documentary on Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, the president and his aide, Natalie Harp, sit next to each other, surrounded by other staff, watching Kamala Harris formally accept the Democratic nomination.

Trump is seen dictating his Truth Social posts to Harp, who types them out, replete with his stylised syntax and Random Capitalisation. He watches, or asks questions of others in the room, while she punches the keys.

The clip has done the rounds on social media this week amid renewed focus on Harp. One X user commented: “This is probably one of the most important videos to understand how Trump’s mind works.”

Harp, who is 35 and now serves as the president’s executive assistant, is the bridge between Trump’s mouth and the keyboard, acting not as a co-creator or editor but as a conduit. In addition to taking dictation, she brings the president printed-out articles – typically from right-wing news sites – or draft posts for his approval.

In March, following a controversy in which Trump’s account posted a video clip that included a racist meme, The Wall Street Journal reported that Harp often brings Trump recycled content from the internet that she and other aides think he would like. She had a portable printer, used to furnish Trump with fresh content while he was, say, on the golf course, and became known as “the human printer” herself.

Harp appears to have come to Trump’s attention in June 2019, during his first term, when she appeared on Fox News. Suffering from bone cancer, Harp had written a LinkedIn post thanking Trump for championing “right to try” laws that opened up experimental treatments to terminally ill patients.

“My oncologist didn’t tell me I had other options. Donald Trump did,” she said. Trump was booked for a phone interview on the same Fox & Friends episode. He posted to Twitter (now X) that Harp was a “GREAT guest” and exemplified the Right To Try Act’s “truly spectacular results”.

A year later, addressing the 2020 Republican National Convention, Harp took things further. “I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for you,” she told Trump.

However, reporting by The Washington Post disputes that narrative. The Post unearthed that Harp had already spoken online about her new treatment two months before Trump signed the Right To Try Act. The drug had already been approved.

Whatever the case, Harp’s dedication to the president was enduring. She served on his 2020 campaign advisory board, and while he was out of office, worked for far-right channel One America News Network, where she and others indulged his false claims about election fraud. Harp joined the Trump campaign for his 2024 tilt.

Even by the high standards of loyalty and devotion required of members of Trump’s White House, Harp stands alone. Her fealty to the president has, at times, raised eyebrows among those in their orbit, including the Secret Service, according to New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan, who co-wrote the recent book Regime Change.

Harp is a regular presence in the book, handing Trump files or sitting by his side with a laptop.