Has Trump fallen in love with his 'human printer'?

0:01Evening. Buyer's remorse. Buy a new car? I'll be moving in. Let's get started. Uh, sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana. You what? Yeah, great price. I even have seven days to love it or return it. So there's no... No, no buyer's remorse. More like buyer's rejoice? I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations. I mean it. Buyer's rejoice. Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may apply. See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com. This is a global production. Natalie Harp, perhaps one of the more extraordinary characters in Trump's White House. She's beautiful.

0:40She's blonde. She's now got a key position and is never far away from Donald Trump.

0:44Lewis Goodall:Harp reportedly leaves Trump highly personal letters in his private quarters, telling him, you're all that matters to me and saying, I want to bring you joy. And now you've got Democrats saying, well, when they go low, we could go even lower. What John Ossoff has done is say out loud what people had been whispering about. Nod, nod, wink, wink. I bet Donald Trump is having it away with her. While he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.

1:35That is the Democrat Senator John Ossoff. And he's talking about Donald Trump wanting to fly on his palace with Natalie. And not a lot of people knew who Natalie was until John Ossoff said that.

1:53Lewis Goodall:Now, everyone in Washington and much of the American media is talking about Natalie Harp, the 35 year old presidential aide who, by all accounts, seldom leaves Trump's side. But who is she and why is John Ossoff, a potential 2028 presidential contender, talking about her? Welcome to the News Agents.

2:19Lewis Goodall:The News Agents. It's John. It's Lewis. And a quick primer on some of the characters here before we start. John Ossoff, if you haven't come across him, is a Georgia senator for the Democratic Party. He is defending a must-win seat in the Senate for the Democrats in November in the midterms. And lots of people talk about him, as I said, as a potential presidential nominee in 2028. We'll perhaps come back to him. But he has ignited social media with that apparently off-the-cuff throwaway remark about one Natalie Harp. Now Natalie Harp is and this is really saying something perhaps one of the more extraordinary characters in Trump's White House.

2:57Lewis Goodall:She's just 35 years old. She formerly was a right wing television host. She was on One America News and as I say she's become one of President Trump's most devoted aides. She first came into Trump's orbit after surviving bone cancer and publicly crediting some of his health legislation, Right to Try with regards to pharmaceuticals as saving her life at the 2020 Republican Convention. Indeed, in Wisconsin, she told Trump personally, without you, I'd have died. And since then, she has become almost you can see this in all the photographs of all the trips of Trump. Trump goes on. She's almost been permanently attached to Trump during the 2024 campaign.

3:40Lewis Goodall:She earned the nickname, wait for it, the human printer, because she'd follow him around with a portable printer, feeding him articles, information, especially including positive quotes about Trump that he would like. One person familiar with his operation said, if you want the president to see something, the best route is with Natalie. And just finally, people might remember listening to our episode with Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the New York Times writer's journalist, in their book, they talk about this and they reveal just how intense the relationship is. Harp reportedly leaves Trump highly personal letters in his private quarters, telling him you're all that matters to me, calling him her guardian and protector in this life and saying, I want to bring you joy.

4:28so the story about the bone cancer i think that has been kind of tugged at a little bit and the threads have started to come undone suggesting that that story isn't quite uh what it seems in the fact that her going on stage and saying you know donald trump saved my life i mean surprise development uh there that it wasn't quite not entirely it seems so it's not entirely truthful in the white house of donald trump that something like that could possibly happen but i mean she comes in a long line of central casting type characters. I mean, you say she's 35. She's beautiful. She's blonde. She's immaculately turned out.

5:11And so many others. I mean, you know, you go back to Hope Hicks in 2016. Very similar. Very good looking. Immaculately turned out. And people speculated about their relationship. And then there was, I can't remember the name of the woman who succeeded her in the White House. but also played a very similar role. I mean, the other phrase that's been used, you talk about the human printer. And, you know, there are stories of Donald Trump playing golf at, you know, Bedminster or wherever it happens to be. And Donald Trump is on one golf cart and the golf cart behind is Natalie Harp with the portable printer printing out articles telling Donald Trump how fabulous he is.

5:51And you talk about Maggie Haberman, you know, the New York Times journalist who wrote that most recent book, Regime Change, she went on MS Now, one of the American networks, and called her Trump's binky, which I think translates as Trump's comforter, Trump's comfort blanket. You know, she's the person who makes Donald Trump feel good. And this comes just, you know, to put it in the context of why everyone in Washington is agog with this, is that Melania Trump hasn't been seen at Donald Trump's side for absolutely ages. But Natalie Harp, she's always there.

6:33Lewis Goodall:Look, I mean, we should be straightforward about this. What Ossoff is doing, and everybody knows it, is that he's clearly intimating and hinting that they're having an affair or that there's something improper about the relationship. Now, we should be clear, there is actually no evidence of that. You know, there's no evidence. There's no credible reporting about it. As I say, there has been credible reporting speaking to just how close the relationship is. You know, she is it is very Trump. Let's leave aside the sort of innuendo for a second. What we can certainly say is that she has a typically Trump relationship or the sort of relationship that is typical of Trump and the sort of White House that he runs, which is that she's not just an official.

7:09Lewis Goodall:She's not just an aide, clearly. She's a sort of person that Trump likes. She's a courtier. She's a courtier for the king of Trump, for the court of Trump. right and that's why she's always there and she clearly completely understands his psychology because the human printer thing is not just a fun nickname it speaks exactly to what trump wants and what trump craves and what trump needs which is constant adulation constant praise constant reassurance actually for a man who seems to have such a big ego you always know on one level it's deeply brittle and she is there to buttress it the entire time to assuage that ego every single minute of every single day.

7:47Lewis Goodall:I mean, I do think, you know, look, Ossoff is a smart, smart guy. And there is a lot of smart, smart money on him running in 28 if he wins his Georgia seat, which looks likely he's way ahead in the polls in what is a very purple state. He knows exactly what he's doing. Every speech he makes, people may have seen some of his other speeches that have lit up the internet. Every speech he makes, you know, he's been majoring on themes around corruption, around the president's uselessness, of him just sitting in the White House all day, you know, waging foreign wars, of building and rebuilding. The only thing that he's interested in is reconstruction of the White House, the ballroom, etc.

8:29Lewis Goodall:And his speeches and his entire campaign is primed and perfectly calculated for virality. And so he knew that in saying that... Virality rather than virility. Correct. Well, in this case, Yeah, virality about the president's virility or lack thereof. He knew that that would catch fire. Yeah. I have to say, you know, I mean, and it has. And the Dems are lapping it up and they love it. And, of course, you can sort of say it speaks to the kind of idea of Trump being like a kind of like Bourbon King or something, you know, of having that core and having these women around him. And this kind of decadence of it all as the United States struggles, as inflation goes up, as the war isn't being won.

9:10Lewis Goodall:You also have to say, right, that it's it's pretty tawdry. It's pretty unpleasant. Right. It's very Trump era. It's very 2026. It's very much the Dems playing Trump at his own game. And we might say, great. But we should also remember, of course, it must be pretty unpleasant for her to be talked about in that way. Yes. And I think that that's a really important point, because I think that, you know, Ossoff, we say that he looks like he's going to be a candidate. I counsel you to go and have a look at Ossoff's, that clip about him, you know, about Natalie and going, the camera angles are fantastic.

9:48It's beautifully shot. He's at a rally. There must be four different cameras, one shooting from below up to that square jaw and that sort of full head of dark hair. and he looks great and he looks commanding. This is obviously a guy who is thinking about a 28 run and knows what he's doing and has got a very good social media game. I mean, whether there's much more beyond that great social media game, we'll see in the coming months. But he's playing it very well. And as for that bit about the Democrats, you know, were kind of, it was embodied by Michelle Obama when she said, when they go low, we go high.

10:25And now you've got Democrats saying, well, when they go low, we could go even lower. You know, if they're going to hit below the belt, well, we'll bloody well hit below the belt. And that is what Ossoff has done. On the basis of nothing, just pure innuendo, nod, nod, wink, wink. I bet Donald Trump is having it away with her. You know, and that's the sort of tone that you get by just introducing this character, Natalie. But it clearly has struck a nerve because the White House comms director, Stephen Chung, has responded, John Jackoff, not Ossoff, John Jackoff. Your nickname. Yeah, exactly. Has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics.

11:03Instead of denigrating hardworking people serving their country, John should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he's a miserable person who hates this country. It's because he's a radical. Biggest what, John? Extremist. Sorry, I missed that. Biggest what? Cuck loser. Oh, beer. What does that mean? Cuck. I don't know. This is more your language, Lewis. Come on, you explain it. No, no, I don't think I will. Anyway, I think it's fair to say. It's not flattering. I can't believe it.

11:31Lewis Goodall:I think the main explanation... It's not the Gettysburg Address, is it? It's not really. It really isn't. Yeah, four score and ten years ago, this republic was founded by the biggest cucks in North America. I mean, honestly, dear, oh dear. Well, anyway, Trump himself, clearly very irritated by it. He was asked about it in the White House yesterday by a CNN reporter. Just take a look at his response.

11:59you mean uh peewee herman peewee herman lookalike uh no i would much rather do other things it's a we're building a great facility here we're fixing a white house that hasn't been taken care of you

12:12Lewis Goodall:can look at this this room was a disgrace and then she tried to follow up on a separate matter and I think it's fair to say that the president's patience was at an end.

12:47military exercises.

12:49Lewis Goodall:Yeah. I find it's the finest republic in the history of the world. And we've got the President of the United States shouting at a report and telling her to be quiet. And we've got his spokesperson accusing his political opponents of being cucks. I mean, where are we, John? We hold these truths to be Southampton and all cucks are created equal. I mean, honestly. I think the depressing thing is I do wish someone in the White House press corps would just say, stop it speak to speak to people with respect i mean he's called you know quiet piggy was a phrase he used to another i think it was a bloomberg reporter on air force one calling someone piggy and it's always to women that he is most offensive you know like he just can't help himself if he's challenged by a woman but to be rude and offensive in reply to her um but i think it shows that you know this is not going well for donald trump at the moment on all sorts of different fronts and he's he's scratchy he's tetchy and that comes through and i think that you know what john ossoff has done is say out loud what people had been whispering about and the white house won't like that at all well clean art i mean ossoff his part has defended it He did an interview with MS Now on Monday night, and he was asked why he chose to invoke Harp and whether that was below the belt, not fair to her in particular.

14:17Lewis Goodall:He said that Trump admired the country in a geopolitical disaster and retreats, retreats into the bubble of the West Wing aides who are a security blanket to make him feel good about himself. So this is sort of part of the this is the sort of wider critique in a sense. I mean, the seriousness of this, I think, is the way in which the Democrats are trying to make him out to basically being a decadent figure, which he is helping them with increasingly. The other day when he was asked about the effect of the Iran war on gas prices, for example, he literally said that I was I was wracking my brains to try and think of any kind of comparator in history of a leader, democratic leader saying this.

14:58Lewis Goodall:And I just couldn't think of anything. He literally said when asked about the fact that gas prices were still high as a result of his war. He says, I don't care. You'll just have to live with it. You know, for a leader, OK, he's not going to have to face election again, whatever Steve Bannon's weird fetid fantasies are about him running in 2028. He's not going to have to face the electors again. But all those Republicans, including Ossoff's challenger, are going to have to in only a few months' time. And you've got to think if you're a Republican strategist, you'll be tearing your hair out that you've got the leader of your party literally turning around to the country and going, you know how I promised spaces to bring down prices?

15:36Lewis Goodall:Not only have I not done that, but I literally don't care that I've inflated them. That's the state of Republican politics at the moment. And all when he's asked about any of these things, he does what we just saw in that clip there. Whenever he's asked about, as the Americans would say, meat and potato issues, prices, cost of things, drug prices, healthcare, whatever, he literally pivots straight away back to the progress of the ballroom or the progress of the White House improvements. He's literally turning around to the American public and saying, I'm not much bothered about what's going on in your house, but let me tell you about the extension I'm doing to mine.

16:11Lewis Goodall:It's crazy politics. It is crazy politics. And I think that does help explain why the Democrats feel they're onto something now with focusing on the White House and the people in it and the characters around Donald Trump. Because, you know, you look at the Oval Office now and compare it to a photo of the Oval Office just a year and a half ago. It's unrecognisable. The amount of gold kind of that has appeared on fireplaces, on the walls. There is guilt everywhere. That's without a U. And, you know, Donald Trump has completely obsessed by building this ballroom and knocking down the East Wing, which he hasn't had any sort of planning permission to do, but has just unilaterally taken it upon himself, that the most important thing that America needs right now is a multi-million dollar ballroom.

16:59Well, if that's what you're going to do, then maybe you do focus on the characters in the White House. And as I say, look, when I was, you know, covering the first term, you would go from the press briefing room through two little sliding doors and then you're into what's called lower press, which is the sort of lower press office of the White House. And it was staffed by just these beautiful young women. I mean, they were dazzling and they all looked like they were kind of from a glamour shoot and they all looked like they were kind of models that had got the job. That is the sort of those are the sort of people that Donald Trump has.

17:32And here we have now this Natalie Hart woman who, as you say, was one American news presenter. And one of America News Network is not a conventional news. It is, you know, it's Trump amplified. It makes Fox News look like Fox News look like it's a sort of wishy washy liberal organization. and hand-wringing snowflakes. I mean, One American News is the real deal for Donald Trump. And so, you know, she catches Donald Trump's eye. She's now got a key position in the White House and is never far away from Donald Trump. I mean, the White House really is disgusting these days, isn't it?

18:04Lewis Goodall:I saw Obama opening his new presidential library in Chicago the other day, a little video, and he was taking the piss saying like, oh, because they've recreated, as they always do with these libraries, they recreate the Oval Office as it looked when the principal, whoever the leader was, was president. and he just goes in and goes like, oh, well, I see you haven't got the little sign announcing that it's the Oval Office here because it's in sort of serif italics, sort of Lucinda calligraphy handwriting on the outside of the door that Trump has got it now. I mean, honestly, the way that Trump, people have seen it on that clip just now, people who are watching, like, honestly, the way he's got the White House now, there is so much gold and tat and tawdry little nonsense.

18:41Lewis Goodall:It looks like Saddam Hussein won an episode of Changing Rooms. Like, it's absolutely revolting. It's just disgusting. It's supposed to be this kind of like patrician, paired back symbol. The people's house. Yes, exactly. The people's house. And honestly, there's a man with, as my nan would say, he's all money, no taste. Yeah. And look, it's coming back to bite them, you sense. Because if you look at his approval ratings and these sort of stories that are coming out now are about the court within the White House. And I kind of think that whilst, you know, there is no evidence to suggest that he's having an affair with this woman, as you say, Lewis, you know, it's just pure innuendo that we're getting.

19:27But I think the focusing on how the court operates is entirely legitimate when Donald Trump is obsessed by this and what his own White House looks like and says, screw you, America, if you can't afford to fill up your car with petrol.

19:41Lewis Goodall:Donald Trump as leader of the as leader in Versailles. Hey, don't Mr President, Louis XIV called. He thinks the Oval Office is looking a bit much. Yeah. It's a bit much these days. The sunbed king. We'll be back in just a moment.

20:11So let us move now from the court of King Donald to the court of a rather angry Prince Nigel and what is happening in reform. And Lewis, you and I did the podcast on Friday when we were talked about the victory that reform had had in Clacton, that Nigel Farage had been returned. And yet we then heard from Tim Montgomery, one of those who'd been very closely, you know, involved in the Conservative Party, who had transferred to reform in a high profile kind of defection, if you like, talking about how Nigel wasn't a happy warrior and there was too much bitterness and kind of unhappiness and chippiness in reform.

20:52And we've learned today that Tim Montgomery has been suspended as a member of the Reform Party, so much for the party of free speech where everyone should be able to say whatever they like.

21:06Lewis Goodall:Yeah. And here is I mean, this all happened before Tim Montgomery did an interview with a spectator. podcast. Let's just listen to what he had to say and about his relationship with Zia Yusuf, their home affairs spokesperson. There are a lot of people who are on no speaking terms with Zia and it's nearly always Zia who initiates this. And it needs to end. You cannot behave like a child in politics. You cannot have litmus tests, you know, on so many litmus tests where you stop talking to people. And I genuinely pay tribute to what Zia is like I've mentioned you know how brilliant he was on the vetting thing he made the party organisation work he has so many qualities but he has to he has to be a team player so Tim Montgomery uh John said there I mean look he was a conservative he joined reform about two years ago um and has been I think it's fair to say generated some irritation um the higher levels of reform and some of those around Farage certainly some of those around Zia Yusuf he's been quite critical sometimes of the way the party's been doing things.

22:12Lewis Goodall:He was quite critical of the way Farage conducted himself just the other day after the by-election in Clacton when he didn't turn up and so on. So, you know, I think this is the product, to some extent, of long-simmering tension. But I think it's also true to say, Montgomery is correct, that Yusuf himself has become a flashpoint internally within reform. There is doubtless a war of words internally about him and about his actions and just how vitriolic he has become, online in particular, and his online activity. We talked last week about John Gise, about his attacking Ben Wallace, the former Conservative Defence Secretary, is a traitor.

22:55Lewis Goodall:Even Farage said that that went too far and these are ticking off, needed a ticking off, but the tweet still remains. He also, just last week, suggested that the boss and board of Vodafone would be jailed if they didn't adhere to reform party policy on basically a charity scheme, giving SIM cards, e-SIM cards to migrants, to asylum seekers. So I think this is interesting in the sense that, you know, one of reform's big challenges has been to make that transition, like all of Farage's political outfits, from basically being a one man band and receptacle for discontent in the country to something much more complicated and much more unwieldy, which is a large, broad-based party capable of internal dissent.

23:42Lewis Goodall:On the basis of this, that transition is not going particularly smoothly. But the one thing that always strikes me about Zia Yusuf, who we spent a lot of last week talking about, is that he seems most uncomfortable with the Conservatives who've come across to reform. He seems quite comfortable with Reform Party members themselves who've always been part of the Nigel Farage sort of grouping. Yes. But kind of somewhat, you know, and you can see you go back to some of the quotes that he made about, you know, Suella Braverman in the past or others of Jenrick as well. And it's the ex-Tories that have come to Farage that he seems to feel I don't know what it is.