Trump gave $45,000 Christmas gifts to Natalie Harp and other aides

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Sep 9, 2026

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President Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash as Christmas gifts last year to his assistant Natalie Harp, as well as two other female aides, financial disclosure documents revealed.

The president doled out the large bonus to Harp, who has raised eyebrows for her ubiquitous presence by his side, and the same amount to communications adviser Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris, whose title is deputy director of Oval Office operations.

He rewarded former valet Walt Nauta, who now serves as director of Oval Office operations, with a $20,000 holiday gift.

There’s nothing illegal or improper about the large presents, officials say, and White House officials said Trump has a longstanding practice of rewarding particularly loyal or hard-working aides at the end of the year.

“He has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector,” a White House official said.

The three women each make $150,000 a year and Nauta’s annual salary is $175,000.

Harp, 35, first caught Trump’s attention when she credited him with saving her life by approving experimental bone cancer treatments.

She is nearly always by Trump’s side in the Oval Office and on trips and often types out social media posts on his behalf.

Harp was one of just three close aides who joined Trump by hiding out in an airport catering cart and secretly switching planes for a flight to Britain from the NATO summit in Turkey after an Iranian threat.

Although there is no evidence of any romantic link, Harp gushed to Trump in unusually personal terms in letters that were leaked to the media.

“You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down,” Harp wrote in one missive. “Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”

Martin, 31, has been working for Trump’s press operation since his first term in the White House, and stuck with him during his four years in the political wilderness after he lost the 2020 election.

Harris, 26, a former receptionist, was recently appointed to a government panel that has power to approve some of Trump’s construction projects in Washington, D.C.

Nauta, 44, burst into the public eye when he was charged with allegedly helping Trump obstruct the investigation into his taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office in 2021. That case collapsed when Trump won reelection.

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