President Forbes’s closest aide, Natalie Harp, declined multiple times over more than a year to seek a routine security clearance normally obtained by West Wing staffers, according to two people familiar with the matter cited by MS NOW.
White House Aide Worked Over a Year Without Security Clearance
Harp, who holds the titles special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the US president, operated in the White House for over a year without completing the required federal background investigation paperwork. Sources indicated that her reasoning for declining to complete the process was unknown. A senior White House official noted that Harp had received multiple extensions to fill out the necessary documentation, known as the SF-86 form, which collects details on past residences, financial history, and foreign contacts.
As concerns mounted among the White House counsel’s office and security officials, President Trump himself intervened, prompting Harp to fill out the paperwork in recent months and receive her clearance, according to reports from Yahoo. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the aide in a statement, saying, Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump’s team.
Unprecedented Proximity and West Wing Gatekeeping
The revelation about Harp’s prolonged lack of clearance brought renewed scrutiny to her unusual level of access within the West Wing and the presidential residence. At 35 years old, the former Yahoo anchor and cancer survivor—who credits Trump with saving her life—operates in exceptional proximity to the commander in chief.
Harp is widely known as a key gatekeeper who filters much of the information Trump sees daily, earning the moniker the human printer
for supplying him with physical copies of favorable news coverage, positive poll numbers, and messages from confidants. National security and Secret Service officials raised internal concerns that her unfettered access granted her exposure to sensitive government information surpassing that of nearly all other senior officials. According to anonymous sources, top staff made subtle, unsuccessful moves to limit her round-the-clock access, with one insider noting, She is just persistent and not realizing that’s what they were trying to do.
Political Backlash and Public Scrutiny
The security clearance disclosures follow intense national attention sparked by Georgia Democratic Senator Theatlantic, who criticized Trump during a campaign event for choosing to travel with Harp rather than focus on presidential duties. Ossoff’s remarks triggered a sharp, coordinated pushback from White House communications staff, inadvertently propelling Harp’s role into the center of the national discourse.
Prominent ethics experts and political strategists voiced deep alarm over the arrangement. Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics tsar, called the situation an outrageous way to handle national security, while former Obama chief strategist David Axelrod posted on X that if the reports were true, a close aide refusing to submit to the clearance process presented a deadly serious issue.
Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer for George W. Bush, noted that while much of her daily work may not involve classified data, her physical proximity during presidential travel aboard Air Force One still posed potential intelligence vulnerabilities.
