President Donald Trump's aide Natalie Harp has recently been thrust in the spotlight, in part because she was reportedly part of the chosen few who joined him in a covert plane swap in Turkey.
Her inclusion in the clandestine transfer from a catering truck to another aircraft was first revealed by The Washington Post on Aug. 10. Since then, Harp has drawn scrutiny because of her persistent presence around the president, reported emotional letters she wrote to Trump, and Sen. Jon Ossoff's viral comment at a campaign event that Trump likes to "travel with Natalie."
All of that followed the reporting on how Trump secretly changed planes en route from Turkey to England on July 8 in a ploy to let the old plane carrying reporters and some Cabinet members
act as a decoy, according to reports from The Washington Post and the New York Times. CBS News and CNN reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined Trump on the secret plane, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others remained on the decoy plane.
Also with the president was a small group of aides with a long history of loyalty to Trump. That reportedly includes Harp, but also assistant to the president Dan Scavino and aide Walt Nauta, who were with Trump on his covert plane. Between the three, one has credited Trump with surviving cancer, one was criminally charged as Trump's co-defendant and one got engaged outside Trump's office, then married at his house.
Here is a closer look at the crew Trump brought with him on the plane.
Natalie Harp compared to Walt Nauta as 'comfort blanket'
Harp is not only a White House fixture, but she has also traveled to Mar-a-Lago on multiple occasions. Trump made 17 trips to Mar-a-Lago during the 2025-2026 social season. Harp appeared to accompany him on 13 of those.
On eight of those trips, Harp's name either appeared on the list of passengers aboard Air Force One that was handed to the press pool covering the trip or was otherwise spotted in the president's company by reporters traveling with Trump. On three other trips, she was spotted attending events with Trump's entourage, including the Scavino wedding, the president's Super Bowl party at Trump International and a presidential speech at a conference in Miami Beach in late March. Harp also appeared to have traveled with Trump on two other trips to South Florida: the president's speech at the Americas Business Forum and UFC 327, both in Miami, according to media reports.
By comparison, Nauta traveled with Trump at least 9 times to Mar-a-Lago this past season. First lady Melania Trump was reported to have traveled with Trump to Mar-a-Lago fewer than a handful of times.
Harp's job is listed as both a special assistant and executive assistant to the president. Though she has not been vocal in this role, photographs show her regularly in Trump's orbit: looking on at a dignified transfer of fallen soldiers, sitting next to the president's kids on an international trip and disembarking Marine One with him at the White House.
Harp spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention, crediting the "Right to Try" law signed by Trump in 2018 with helping her access experimental treatment for a rare bone cancer. In the new book “Regime Change,” New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan say Trump says Harp will never leave him, and loves him as much as his wife and children. Haberman also said Harp and Nauta are similar in being like a "comfort blanket" to Trump in an interview with MS NOW.
"I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for you," she said, addressing Trump in the remote 2020 convention speech. "They didn't give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did. And without you, I'd have died."
Harp went on to work at One America News Network and on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. She's known as the "human printer" for having a portable printer in hand to provide hard copies of things if he needs them.
She put her work on display at Mar-a-Lago in the "Art of the Surge" docuseries on Fox Nation, where she produces a printer, a small generator and some paper clips from a large duffle bag to print off a copy of "The Snake."
Walt Nauta named as co-defendant in now-dismissed classified documents case
While Harp's ubiquitous presence around the president has drawn heat-lamp scrutiny, the "body man" has largely done the opposite.
That would be Waltine "Walt" Nauta, a Trump aide who also seems ever-present. When Trump is in the White House, Nauta is usually around. When Trump flies back to Palm Beach County, Nauta is usually aboard. When Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, Nauta is usually there.
But unlike Harp, Nauta, dubbed the "body man" for his omnipresence, has done little to draw attention to himself, or what it is he does for Trump.
With one major exception.
In June 2023, Nauta was indicted along with Trump in the classified documents case following the Mar-a-Lago raid by the FBI the year prior. Nauta faced six counts of wrongdoing for allegedly assisting in concealing dozens of boxes that prosecutors say contained some of the nation's most-guarded military and intelligence secrets at the then-former president's Palm Beach club.
The charging document, however, revealed little about what the former U.S. Navy veteran did for Trump, other than stating that he joined Trump as an executive assistant after the first White House term ended in 2021.
A search warrant that was unveiled as part of the legal proceedings in the case described a person, identified as witness 5, who was said to have moved dozens of boxes in May and June of 2022 presumably to avoid their uncovering. Witness 5 was, at the time, speculated to have been Nauta.
Nauta, like Trump, pleaded not guilty to the charges in Miami federal court, but his plea came weeks after Trump's June 13, 2023, arraignment and was somewhat of a saga.
Eventually, the entire case was dismissed by federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, in July 2024, just days after an attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania and as the Republican National Committee was kicking off its quadrennial convention in Milwaukee.
Trump calls Scavino 'very loyal' at Mar-a-Lago wedding
Trump's shortest weekend stay at Mar-a-Lago this term, under 24 hours, was especially meaningful for longtime aide Scavino and State Department director of art in the embassies Erin Elmore. Scavino has also been in Trump's world for a long time, starting with being Trump's golf caddie as a teenager in Westchester, New York.
Scavino and Elmore got married at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 1 with the president in attendance in a star-studded MAGA affair.
"That's a big day," Trump told reporters traveling with him. "Very loyal, very fantastic people."
The bride walked in holding the hand of a young boy who raised up a white cap with blue letters that read "Trump Made This Happen." Scavino, in fact, had proposed in September outside the Oval Office.
Among the guests present were Cabinet members Rubio and Hegseth, as well as Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi, who both subsequently left those posts. Super billionaire Elon Musk was there, too, plus Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders. The president’s family was well represented by Donald Trump Jr. and his now-spouse Bettina Trump, Kai Trump, Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos.
White House staff came out as well, led by chief of staff Susie Wiles, policy strategist Stephen Miller and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The nuptials, however, came amid a flashpoint in the Trump administration and one of its key players, Noem, in addition to the communications spin team involving Scavino, said to have access to Trump's social media accounts.
Damaging revelations had continued to emerge about the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who worked at the area's Veterans Affairs hospital. Pretti had been killed by federal agents on Jan. 24 during immigration protests in the Minnesota capital city.
Frustrated, Trump acknowledged he was considering going as far as placing body cameras on federal agents.
“We'll be talking about that in the near future,” Trump said while at Mar-a-Lago that day.
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Threads, Bluesky and TikTok.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: A Mar-a-Lago groom and co-defendant joined Natalie Harp in plane swap
