It’s a miracle: Natalie Harp has turned Republicans into feminists | Arwa Mahdawi

Jon Ossoff is quite the miracle worker. Perhaps the Democratic senator can’t turn water into wine, but he has managed to turn whining conservatives into impassioned feminists.

During a rally last Sunday, the Georgia senator delivered a takedown of Donald Trump, which included a reference to his aide Natalie Harp. “He doesn’t want to do the job,” Ossoff said of the president. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

Those three words – travel with Natalie – were deliberately loaded. Harp was in the spotlight at the time because of the decoy plane story. The 35-year-old was one of a handful of people Trump had taken onto a different plane via a catering truck when he was worried about a potential assassination attack targeting Air Force One. Intrigue as to the exact nature of the relationship between Harp and Trump was heightened by the fact that Melania Trump, the president’s third wife, hadn’t been seen in public for weeks at the time. (Funnily enough, she magically reappeared on Thursday, a few days after Ossoff’s comments, for a press conference where she lovingly held hands with Trump. Very cute.)

Ossoff’s remarks about “Natalie” might have been something of a cheap shot, but it’s hilarious to watch the right discover misogyny and decry the remarks as sexist. Suddenly, everyone from Fox News to prominent conservatives are very worried about a professional woman not being taken seriously.

The former House speaker Newt Gingrich, for example, said on Twitter/X that Ossoff owes Harp an apology. “If a conservative Republican had attacked a liberal Democrat working professional woman the way Ossoff smeared Natalie Harp there would be cries to kick them off the ticket and reject this kind of misogynistic language diminishing and smearing someone who is simply doing their job.”

The conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who is rumoured to be a potential replacement for Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary, was also appalled. “[Ossoff] unleashed a comment so vile against a young Republican woman working in politics that every woman in this country, no matter your ideology, ought to listen carefully and never forget it,” Jennings said on his podcast.

Meghan McCain also clutched her pearls at the coverage Ossoff’s comments sparked. “The egregious sexist attacks on Natalie Harp are absolutely insane – and they’re coming from prestigious journalists,” she wrote on X. “What is wrong with everyone?! Every president has close aides and sometimes they are females. Like what year is this?!”

It’s 2026, Meghan. And in the year 2026 I think the masses have generally understood that simply criticizing a woman is not in itself misogynistic. I’m not saying there hasn’t been any misogyny in the Harp coverage, but the main reason there has been so much attention on the story is because the White House has had a completely unhinged response to Ossoff’s comments and kept it in the news. More importantly, the reason so many people aren’t taking the Trump aide seriously isn’t because she’s a woman; it’s because she’s not a serious person.

And I’m being diplomatic with that choice of language. After all, we’re talking about someone whose nickname is “the human printer” because, while working on Trump’s re-election campaign, she reportedly ran around after him with a portable printer, handing him hard copies of flattering coverage. You could write that off as a canny career move from someone who understands flattery gets you everywhere with Trump, but that’s also one of the least weird things Harp has done. Per a CNN report, which has pictures of the incident, back in 2023, Harp jumped in the trunk of an SUV because she wanted to be close to Trump and there was no room in his motorcade. Once Trump won re-election and Harp joined him in the White House, she apparently worked for a year without security clearance. According to reporting by MS NOW, she declined to complete the clearance process for unknown reasons.

And then there are the “adoring letters” Harp sent Trump, first mentioned in the book Regime Change, by the New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Two were later published in the Daily Beast. “You are all that matters to me,” she wrote in one letter. Other memorable lines included “I want to bring you joy, to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work’”; she also called Trump her “Guardian and Protector in this Life”.

To state the obvious: these are deeply weird things to say to your boss. (It’s also weird that Harp shares Trump’s unconventional approach to capitalization.) I should note that Harp, who says she is a cancer survivor, seems to believe that Trump saved her life by signing legislation that gave her access to experimental bone cancer treatment when she was younger. While that might make her obsession with Trump more understandable, it does not make her general conduct any more professional. So spare me all the lectures from the right about sexism, please. If you’re worried about how women in politics are treated, you should probably focus your attention on the adjudicated sexual abuser who is president.

Donald Trump attacks another female journalist

Trump can’t seem to stand it when a woman doesn’t fawn over him and has a history of attacking female journalists. The latest object of his ire is the CNN reporter Kristen Holmes, who asked the president about Ossoff’s comments regarding Natalie Harp. Trump called Holmes a “loud boisterous person” and instructed her to be “quiet”. Meanwhile, the White House’s social media account posted about Holmes multiple times. In one post they wrote: “Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive.”

New York gives parents a ‘night out’

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted the city’s first Parents’ Night Out. The city provided free childcare for nearly 300 kids so parents could have a little time off. This is what “family values” and being pro-life actually look like: supporting parents, not forcing women to give birth.

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis grows, with 200,000 newly displaced people

Increased fighting in the Kordofan region and flooding has made one of the world’s largest displacement crises even worse.

Margaret Qualley was spotted stepping out in the sole-less shoes. Somehow I do not think I will be wearing these around the filthy streets of Philadelphia.

‘Heated Rivalry’ author donates $300,000 to rural libraries facing closure

“I had to do it because I don’t know what the point is of being a successful author in Nova Scotia if you’re not going to use it for good,” Rachel Reid told CBC News. Wouldn’t it be nice if Elon Musk thought like that?

Israel launches an ‘investigation’ into killing of Hind Rajab

In January 2024, 335 bullets were fired into a car containing five-year-old Hind and six of her family members in Gaza. When paramedics came to help, they were killed too. IDF vehemently denied responsibility for this atrocity, despite investigations making it obvious that its military was responsible. This week, Israel finally admitted its troops fired into the car and said there would be an investigation. Which is not particularly reassuring: Israel’s investigations into itself rarely result in any sort of accountability. Wesam Hamada, Hind’s mother, is demanding an independent inquiry, which is the least Hind deserves.

• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist