Americans have questions about Natalie Harp, President Donald Trump’s famously ultra-loyal White House aide.
According to a new Daily Mail / JL Partners poll, 42 percent of Americans think there are more questions to be answered about her role in the Trump administration, while 36 percent are unsure and 22 percent are satisfied.
Broken down by party, 58 percent of Democrats want more answers, while just 29 percent of Republicans do.
Overall, the poll found, Harp is not particularly well known to the general public. Only 16 percent of respondents said they had heard a great deal about her, while 23 percent had heard a fair amount, and a third of respondents had heard nothing at all.
Less than half of both Republicans and Democrats said they had been following Harp’s story closely.
open image in galleryThe Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
In political circles, Harp has become a subject of close attention, however, for her extreme devotion to the president.
Harp reportedly leaves the president adoring notes, with one reading, “You are all that matters to me,” according to the book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
The spotlight intensified after it was revealed that Harp was among a handful of aides the president took with him as part of a secret ploy in July to switch planes on the way back from a summit in Turkey in the face of potential security threats from Iran.
Harp reportedly was with the president as he left Air Force One using a catering truck as cover, leaving the press and senior Cabinet officials behind.
The president’s bond with Harp has inspired mockery from late-night comedians and attacks from the Republican’s partisan critics.
open image in gallerySenator Jon Ossoff of Georgia has mentioned Harp and Trump in his stump speech.
“He golfs and trades stocks,” Ossoff said in August. “See, he doesn’t want to do the job; he wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
The Trump administration has defended Harp, arguing all the public scrutiny into her is unfounded.
“No president has cultivated as much loyalty among their staffers and administration officials as President Trump; this is a testament to his commitment to our country and its people,” White House spokesman Kush Desai previously told The Independent. “Natalie Harp is a beloved White House Official, and the Fake News Media will never understand what it’s like to be as trusted and admired as her.”
Trump, for his part, has reportedly extolled Harp’s loyalty, telling staffers she was the “only one who loved him as much as his wife and kids,” according to Regime Change.
“All of you will go off and make money,” the president allegedly told his subordinates. “She’ll never leave me.”