President Donald Trump's controversial aide, Natalie Harp, joined the president, his family, including first lady Melania Trump and other White House staffers for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on Sunday, Aug. 23.
Harp was seen in the stands, a few rows behind the Trumps during the race, and chatting with Trump's son Eric Trump prior to the race.
Several members of Trump's Cabinet, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, were also at the event, according to CNN. The race was organized under the umbrella of the president's Freedom 250, a "public-private partnership" that previously put on a UFC mixed martial arts
card on the South Lawn of the White House, the Great American State Fair and the Patriot Games.
Thousands of fans packed into the nation's capital to watch Kyle Kirkwood win the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, marking a historic moment in IndyCar history. The race took place on the National Mall, following a course that takes seven turns between the U.S. Capitol and around Smithsonian museums and the National Archives. Racers drove 147 laps around the 1.7-mile course for a total of 250 miles before spectators.
Trump and Melania Trump took a ride around the track in "the Beast," the nickname for the heavily armored presidential limousine, ahead of the competition, before the president waved the green flag to kick off the laps.
Harp spotted with Trump over the weekend as well
The Freedom 250 Grand Prix wasn't the only place Harp was spotted alongside President Trump. She also accompanied the president to Trump National Golf Club as he visited his northern Virginia golf club on Saturday, Aug. 22, and to South Carolina on Friday, Aug. 21, for a campaign rally with Darline Graham.
Who is Natalie Harp?
Natalie Harp, 34, is Trump's executive assistant and one of the most visible figures in the president's inner circle. Harp, a former television presenter for One America News Network, graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2012 and received an MBA from Liberty University in 2015, according to Vanity Fair.
Harp first gained national attention after crediting Trump's "Right to Try" law with helping her access an experimental treatment for bone cancer, according to Forbes. The law, signed by Trump in 2018, allows some terminally ill patients to seek access to treatments that have not yet received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. She spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention and later worked on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign before joining the White House as executive assistant at the start of his second term.
Harp has become known in Trump circles as the "human printer," a nickname tied to her habit of carrying a portable printer and battery pack so she could provide the president with physical copies of information wherever he traveled, according to reporting by The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network.
She has also been linked in reports to some of Trump's most controversial social media activity through her access to his Truth Social account.
She has long been one of President Donald Trump's closest aides, but a pointed comment from Sen. Jon Ossoff has put her into the national spotlight.
During a rally in Atlanta on Aug. 16, the Georgia Democrat accused Trump of wanting to "travel with Natalie" instead of focusing on his duties, reigniting questions about the aide's influence and unusually close proximity to the president.
Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Michelle Del Rey, Jeanine Santucci / USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Natalie Harp spotted in the Grand Prix stands with the Trump family
