This story is adapted from the Slatest newsletter. You can sign up here to get it in your inbox every day.

By this point, you’ve almost certainly heard the one about Donald Trump and “Natalie.”

Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, set off a firestorm of speculation about White House aide Natalie Harp—and the exact nature of her close relationship with the president—when he name-checked her during a campaign rally last weekend. We mentioned Harp in a newsletter earlier this week, and my colleague Heather Schwedel wrote a primer for the uninitiated that was among Slate’s most-read articles this week. But the story refuses to die. Searches for Harp’s name, which spiked after Ossoff’s mention, have remained high. And last night, the Daily Beast published two reverential letters that Harp allegedly wrote to Trump in 2023, when she served as a presidential campaign aide. So once more into the rumors we dive.

What do the letters say, and do we know they’re real? 

The journalist Michael Wolff, who has been chronicling Trump for years, says he obtained both letters while writing a book about the president’s 2024 campaign. Wolff is an imperfect source; he’s previously been accused of making up quotes. But although no other media outlet has independently confirmed the letters’ authenticity, they match excerpts the New York Times quoted in a 2024 story about Harp joining the White House.

The letters’ full text makes for some pretty uncomfortable reading. In one, apparently written during or after an overseas golfing trip, Harp apologizes for having sprinted after the president for lack of a golf cart. “I want things to always be right between us,” she allegedly wrote, adding, “I see myself being lowered in your eyes and good opinion. That is the fear you see, because I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down.” That letter was signed “with all my heart” and had Harp’s signature at the bottom. In the second letter, signed “always,” Harp describes being envious of people “whose only ‘job’ seems to be to talk with you, and look pretty,” adding “I want that job!!” She later writes that she misses the days when she and Trump would talk on the phone “about everything and nothing.” As the Daily Beast notes, the letters were written when Harp was 31 and Trump was 76.

That sounds … unusual? 

There’s more. Harp started working for Trump in 2022 after a stint parroting his lies about the 2020 election as a TV host at the far-right One America News Network. Her job—which earned her the internal moniker “the human printer”—has included posting remarks Trump dictates to Truth Social, texting on his behalf, and schlepping around a portable printer so she can feed him hard copies of news articles in person. According to the Times, Harp regularly filters content from social........

© Slate