President Donald Trump gave over $150,000 in cash to four White House aides, with the payments categorized as “cash gifts for the holidays” in the staffers’ latest financial disclosure forms filed by the Trump administration.
Trump paid assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris cash gifts of $45,000 each. Trump also gave Walt Nauta, his director of Oval Office operations, a $20,000 gift for the holidays. The payments were first reported by the Washington Post.
The disclosure forms each list the president, personally, as the source of the cash gifts. The address for the payments to Harp and Martin is listed as from Palm Beach, Florida, while the address for the payments to Harris and Nauta is listed as from Washington.
Harp, Martin, and Harris each make $150,000 annually, while Nauta earns $175,000 annually, according to administration salary disclosures.
“The President 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 spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday evening.
“The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals’ official government duties, and, therefore, are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards,” the spokesperson continued.
Harp’s working relationship with the president has come under scrutiny after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) quipped about their dynamic last month at a rally, saying Trump “wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.” Trump fired back at Ossoff over the comment, brushing off his attacks and calling the senator a “Pee-Wee Herman look-alike.”
WHO IS NATALIE HARP? MEET DONALD TRUMP’S ‘HUMAN PRINTER’
Harp, one of the president’s closest allies, is known as the “human printer” because she carries a portable printer to make paper copies of articles and social media posts for Trump to read. She rose to prominence in the political world after speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention about her story with bone cancer, giving a speech in which she credited the president’s “right to try” legislation for her lifesaving medicine.
Martin is one of the president’s top communications advisers, while Nauta and Harris each work in Oval Office operations. Harris also serves on the Commission of Fine Arts in a position that Trump appointed her to.