Why Natalie Harp’s Special Perk Stunned Trump Staff: Author

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty Donald Trump’s biographer says a special privilege granted to Natalie Harp but denied to other staffers became a defining moment of his campaign.

Harp, 35, one of the 80-year-old president’s closest aides, has drawn scrutiny this month amid mounting concerns over her proximity to Trump and the nature of their relationship .

But author Michael Wolff says Trump’s own staff have been raising red flags about Harp since the former right-wing news anchor joined his team in 2022 and quickly worked her way into his inner circle.

The Trump biographer told the Inside Trump’s Head podcast that by the time Trump was campaigning to reclaim the White House, Harp had become a fixture at his side and enjoyed a coveted perk that left other staffers stunned: unfettered access to the exclusive buffet at Trump’s golf club in Palm Beach, Florida.

“The staffers... like, I mean, they get teary-eyed, their eyes roll back, because they’re actually not allowed to go to the buffet,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles.

But Harp was “always allowed into the buffet,” he added.

“Not just Natalie, but Natalie with her mother.” The author, who has written four tell-all books on Trump and has dined with him in Palm Beach , said Harp would show up for the buffet every Sunday.

“Among the staff there was like, ‘Is she allowed to do that? Should she be doing that?’” he recounted.

“And then the people at the golf club serving this: ‘Should we? ...She says that the president says she can be here, but can she be here?’” “That became... a major moment within the campaign: Natalie at the buffet.” Last week, the Daily Beast published the full text of two letters Harp wrote to Trump in which she professed her utter devotion to the president while unburdening herself about her deepest emotions and personal troubles.

The letters were handed to Wolff while he was writing his latest book, All or Nothing , which chronicled Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The author told the Inside Trump’s Head podcast last week that alarmed Trump staffers had tipped him off about Harp’s letters and growing role by the president’s side.

“They were worried that this person, Natalie Harp, who was then 30 years old... no background whatsoever, had came to... take more and more and more of... candidate Trump’s attention, and become more and more central to what he knew, what he believed, the opinions that he had at any given moment,” he said.