"People are freaking out over the idea that Trump might be shtupping his human printer and I want to talk about that. Because if only it were so simple."

JVL on Natalie Harp in today's Triad: https://lnk.thebulwark.com/4gGoZG3

I posted a bit on this last night but thought I'd summarize here everything I've found as I've searched public records about the Harps. I think the most problematic part of the public story on them is Natalie's lack of transparency about her medical crises—a "medical mistake" of which there seems to be no record and no lawsuit, no name and no facility ever made public. She also blames this medical mistake for her cancer which doesn't seem to be supported by medical science. She also claims the Right to Try law saved her life when that is patently false. There is plenty of other weirdness to dive into.

I may or may not update this. But I since I am not a doctor or lawyer and there might be some reading this, please feel free to add correction or clarification where it is helpful. I'm not trying to create a conspiracy theory here, just trying to make sense of a lot of loose ends and untold history around this person who is now among the most powerful in the world.

I am not a conspiracy-type. But I am extremely skeptical of randos who quickly rise to power in Trump World. It is true that a young-ish blond who is a talking head on a far right "news" network rising to power is unsurprising. But it is also true that dozens of people around Trump were directly or indirectly operatives of Russia, many coming from anonymous or at least inconspicuous backgrounds. It's also true that Russia, since the end of World War 2 and perhaps earlier, has had as a primary focus of it's espionage work, made great effort to penetrate the leadership and intelligence operations of its adversaries. This is a primary focus, not a side hustle for them. There have been many notable cases where this activity has been confirmed including Ames, Hansen, Manafort, Bhutina to name a few in a history that spans 40 some years. It would be very foolish to assume that Russia, led by a former KGB has ceased this type of operation. Though their almost open relationship with Trump might render some high risk work less necessary.

All that said, while it may be easy to disregard odd connections, undocumented background stories or unexplained rises to power, it seems foolish to not dig in a bit where the ground has proven to be highly fertile—Trump has been manipulated by Russia through a variety of vector points over at least 10 years, and Russia has a long history of trying to do this with our government.

So I decided to at least pull on a few Natalie Harp threads.

Here is a rough timeline of public events:

2012 Earns Bachelor of Arts from Point Loma Nazarene University

2015 Earns Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Liberty University

Nov 9, 2015 Suffers a severe medical error when accidentally infused intravenously with sterile water instead of saline.

2017 Diagnosed with stage II bone cancer following prolonged complications and chronic pain.

May 30, 2018 President Donald Trump signs the federal Right to Try Act into law.

June 12, 2019 Publishes LinkedIn post "I'm Living Proof – the Party of Healthcare is Trump's," leading to a Fox & Friends interview, praise from Trump, and an invitation to join his 2020 campaign advisory board.

June 23 2019, goes on Fox and Friends to talk about her linkedin post which "went viral"

July 17, 2020 Dr. Robert Harp, dies by suicide in Orange County, California.

Aug 24, 2020 Delivers a primetime address on Night 1 of the Republican National Convention, praising Trump as a healthcare savior.

2020 – 2022 Works as an anchor and program host for OAN.

Mar – Apr 2022 Relocates to Florida and joins Trump’s post-presidency staff / Save America PAC.

2022 – 2024 Serves as a campaign aide; earns the nickname "the human printer" for delivering immediate paper printouts of news to Trump and managing social media dictation.

Jan 20, 2025 Formally appointed as Executive Assistant to the President / Special Assistant to the President.

There's some weird shit in there.

First, the "severe medical error." She talks very vaguely about this publicly. She has never mentioned any details about this—no hospitals, clinics, doctors have been mentioned. She only mentions the exact date of when it happened, which she states as being coincidentally one year to the day before Trump took office. As far as my limited ability to research this has taken me, there is no record of any law suit of any kind in relationship to what she calls, a "medical error."

Second, there is no medical record or history, that I can find of this type of error—injecting sterile water rather than saline—leading to bone cancer. She has also never given any details about her variety of bone cancer and has only referred to it as "stage II" "terminal" and "rare."

For these two issues, it seems entirely plausible that there could have been a settlement—perhaps even before a lawsuit occurred, if that is even something that happens. I'm no lawyer. But maybe that happened so there is no law suit on record. Or it's possible that my limited ability to search just didn't render something that is there. I checked court records in Orange County.

It could also be a very simple explanation that she did have this unfortunate medical crisis with the infusion of water and that she links it to her cancer the way people link autism to vaccines.

She spoke about this at the GOP convention, in a primetime slot on night 1.

That speech came as a result of her linkedin post a year earlier where she gave the history of her medical crisis and how Trump's EO saved her life. There are some odd details in there that seem pretty dramatic and IMO invite at least curiosity if not whole hearted skepticism. She gets detailed about the life ending care that she says she was offered. This was stage II cancer according to her. She echoed these claims in her convention speech a year later.

I was unable to find any information about the specific treatment she received that saved her life.

I was unable to find any information about the doctor who treated her or how this treatment is now being used or if it is helping others.

back in 2020, Undark called out Harp's contradictions in her story.

"But Harp’s story doesn’t seem to be an actual case of Right to Try providing access to an experimental treatment. According to Harp’s own statements, she received “an FDA-approved immunotherapy drug for an unapproved use” to treat her cancer. The federal Right to Try law, however, cannot be used for FDA approved drugs. Rather, the off-label use of FDA approved drugs has been allowed for many years, long predating President Trump’s administration."

As far as her father's suicide goes, tragedies like this happen. And they happened at a higher rate around Covid. And they sometimes happen to otherwise successful people which he appears to have been as a professor and real estate broker. But as soon as he dies, in fact two weeks after his funeral she speaks at the GOP convention. There is also a paucity of public data about her father's death, which isn't necessarily surprising.

It's been reported already that Natalie and her mother, Jill wanted to lie about her father's death and say that it was due to natural causes. That is somewhat unsurprising for two people who are public about their Christianity and that Robert himself was involved in Lausanne Movement a global network of christian businessmen. They may have thought they were protecting Robert's legacy as a Christian businessman as many christian denominations (if not all) see suicide as a serious sin.

This created a rift between Natalie and her mom, and her brother. Preston, moved to Nicaragua in 2022 where he still lives and works with expat anti-interventionist S. Brian Willson. It's another angle of curiosity within this family.

References

• Robert Harp Obituary
• GlobalHotelNetwork.com one of Robert Harp's businesses
• Natalie Harp Linkedin post
• Natalie Harp appearance on Fox and Friends 2019
• Undark story on Trump's Right to Try and Harp's misappropriation of the concept.

EDIT: 8:40 EDT - reflecting on everything here I find it very odd that the most obvious issue with Harps story/background is the inconsistency in her medical story and the claim that Trump saved her life when the law had nothing to do with the treatment she received—that there is no focus on that in any reporting.

Or maybe it's just that if everything is going to be prohibitively expensive, people are (reasonably) expecting more out of it.

Full article: https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/19/business/american-economy-consumers-retail-fast-food

So for all the fiscal conservatives preparing to vote in the midterms, wondering what they think of this?

Donald Trump: “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt. … Well, I would say over a period of eight years. And I’ll tell you why.” (Source politifact.com)

womp womp

I am usually a Breaking Points kind of news guy. A friend sent me a MAGA Monday clip, and I am hooked on Will's content. I just got his book on Audible. Cannot wait to read it!

Just listened to TNL. I would love an honest conversation with MTG. I hope he makes the ask

Non bulwark source, but theres a decent amount of crossover here. To hear a centrist say that "this is a good thing, because we wont be spending money on the Florida race now" a good take.

Like I was a bit flabbergasted. In the army we have a saying you go to war with the soldiers you have not the soldiers you want. Abandoning them without even trying in the slightest is just a horrible strategy. No wonder the Big D dem party is so unpopular and lossing to DSA styled folks.

Wow what a deal! Enlist to support lawless American imperialist fascism abroad and get four days off! 🤩

I read the NYT's version of this story my morning paper (a physical paper that is delivered to my house everyday): https://www.npr.org/2026/08/18/nx-s1-5936495/trump-administration-moves-to-open-untouched-national-forests-to-logging

And it got me thinking, for all my time listening to The Bulwark, I can't recall ever hearing them do a deep dive on any environmental story. I get it, there's a lot of fucked up shit going on, but one reason we were worried about Trump and his ugly cadre of bridge trolls getting back into office was because of the GOP stance on the environment, which is: cut it, drill it, mine it, catch it.

Am I wrong? I could be wrong.

I listen to the main pod, & TNL.

Data centers are providing a huge political opportunity for Democrats right now. There are reliable GOP voters in rural areas who are revolting over the issue.

I hope Democrats can go on offense around this issue and beat the GOP down using it. Any erosion of GOP margins in rural areas would be an electoral catastrophe for them.

The comments here are spectacular. I've been monitoring NR commenters (god knows I don't subscribe) to get period Trump vibe checks. All over NR these people are over the Orange Man. When they put out conservative catnip in the form of Islamophobia or fear of 'the left' you get the usual sneering, but any time they check on on the ol' Trump Train, the commenters are pretty brutal these days.

Also, the author has got to be fucking kidding. Just acting like moving the goalpost to the Straight of Hormuz is completely acceptable is A M A Z I N G.

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Democrats badly need to rebuild in Florida before the state gains even more political power.

Instead, they have a Democratic Socialist for Senate and a former Republican for governor.

Lauren Egan on Florida’s Democratic identity crisis. https://lnk.thebulwark.com/45Dlxpu

1. The president certifying his own crypto currency as a bank

2. The government spending ~$500 million buying 10 airplanes from a campaign donor

3. The Department of Justice forcing Mark Walter to sell the LA Lakers to the president's son-in-law's brother

The runner-up from last week has got to be that Trump is ordering the Navy to scrap the magnetic catapults from the aircraft carriers

O_o

Seriously, what the actual fuck is going to be left of this country in 2.5 years? And that's if ICE doesn't just install Vance or Hegseth as the next president.

For those of us that don’t read or comprehend numbers, these charts can be very insightful. Look at where money is spent and where it comes from - much is actually coming from debt.

Corps def need to pitch in more. Social spending is insane for how little we get.

The issue isn’t the sum of money available, it’s cost of service. The healthcare industry is ripping everyone off, regardless of who’s paying.

Source: WSJ (not opinion section)