A key Democratic lawmaker and 2028 hopeful’s jab at a close aide to U.S. President Donald Trump has ignited a personal feud that could reverberate into a critical battleground midterm race.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up for reelection in November, invoked the little-known, close aide to Trump during remarks Sunday in Atlanta as he railed broadly over whether the president actually wants to serve as commander-in-chief.
“While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings, he golfs, and trades stocks,” Ossoff said at a campaign rally.
He continued: “He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” referring to Natalie Harp, the president’s executive assistant.
Ossoff’s audience cheered the attack, and commenters on X pointed particularly to his decision to invoke Harp.
Asked about the Democratic senator’s remarks, Trump on Monday compared Ossoff to Pee-wee Herman and told CNN’s Kristen Holmes in the Oval Office that he would “much rather do other things.” He then pivoted to discussing the White House construction, saying that he was “building a great facility” and extolling his East Wing project as “much more than a ballroom.”
The White House had earlier took note of Ossoff’s comments, blasting him from the press shop Monday morning.
“Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he’s a miserable person who hates this country,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote in a post to social media.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Ossoff was a “cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama,” and a “lightweight loser.”
The name-calling underscores how closely the White House is watching Ossoff, who has generated 2028 presidential chatter as he’s cast the midterm elections as a referendum on corruption, costs and failed global leadership.
Ossoff is running for his second term against Rep. Mike Collins, a close Trump ally endorsed by the president in the purple state. A June Fox News poll showed Ossoff up 13 points over Collins among registered voters in the state, though strategists in both parties believe this contest will tighten in the coming months.
It remains to be seen if Ossoff’s efforts to poke the president generate any reaction beyond social media clap-backs, including the possibility of bolstered financial backing for Collins. Trump, via his MAGA Inc. PAC, has a US$400 million warchest to use in the coming campaigns, and he’s approved a first multi-million-dollar tranche of funding to be spent in the coming weeks, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The moment also renewed focus on Harp, who has emerged as one of the president’s most trusted personal aides and sources of information, frequently accompanying him on weekend trips to Mar-a-Lago and his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. When Trump snuck out of Air Force One to board a smaller aircraft in Turkiye, due to a threat from Iran, Harp was one of a small handful of aides who joined him.
Harp has become an informational gatekeeper for Trump. She first came on the president’s radar in 2019, sharing her story of living with bone cancer and surviving a catastrophic health incident, which she credited to Trump’s “Right to Try” policies in a Fox News interview.
“I’m not dying from cancer anymore. Thanks to President Trump, I’m living with cancer,” she said on “Fox & Friends,” an appearance that earned her speaking slots at the “Faith and Freedom” conference and the 2020 Republican National Convention, followed by a One America News Network role, solidifying her status as Trump validator. She started working as the president’s personal assistant in 2022.
Harp reportedly sent Trump a number of laudatory and personal letters in 2023 that “unnerved” people around him, according to the New York Times. (“You are all that matters to me,” she said in one, according to the report, “I want to bring you joy,” in another.)
Today, Harp follows Trump around with a printer and the president dictates many of his social media posts and text messages through her, offering her a position of influence through proximity.
This story has been updated with new developments.
By Betsy Klein, Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN
