Natalie Harp stabs White House ‘Ice Maiden’ chief of staff Susie Wiles, causing Trump to ‘panic’
The president’s 35-year-old aide rubs salt in the wound as he decides the fate of his powerful chief of staff.
KENT NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump’s favorite aide sent him into a complete meltdown by handing him a printed copy of an explosive report about how he planned to fire his chief of staff.
Natalie Harp, 35, printed out Politico’s Playbook newsletter for the 80-year-old president to read Thursday morning, the outlet reported Friday.
The story sparked a “panic” when he “blew up” over coverage of his secret calls to close allies asking who they think should replace Susie Wiles, the ruthless aide so central to the president’s political operations that he calls her his “Ice Girl,” Politico’s sources said.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Wiles and his supporters have since “burned phones all over town” to try to calm things down, people close to the situation told the outlet.
“The White House is in a state of panic,” a close source said. “Susie is looking over her shoulder, trying to get people to come out and say good things about her and her team and make it seem like everything is okay.”
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“That’s not the case,” they added.
Politico’s revelations that Trump cooled Wiles come ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, where the president’s approval ratings helped Democrats take a 9-point overall lead over Republicans in the race for control of the House and Senate.
Harp is a near-constant presence at Trump’s side.
The president, for his part, has categorically denied that any of the reported calls took place. “TOTAL FAKE NEWS Politico does not care about facts, integrity or honest journalism,” he said in a statement to the outlet on Thursday.
“Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving chief of staff – and there is a reason for that,” he added. “She has been with me since the beginning, is my trusted advisor and has my complete confidence.”
Harp, nicknamed “the human printer” by other aides for her habit of printing articles and comments online for the president to read, chose to share Politico’s reporting with the president after months of reported tensions with his chief of staff.
Wiles, like other members of Trump’s team, was reportedly disturbed by the young aide’s unusually close and devoted relationship with Trump. Harp earns $150,000 a year as a “special assistant and executive assistant to the president.”
The president is now considering several names to replace Wiles, according to Politico.
They include deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, special envoy Steve Witkoff, housing chief Bill Pulte, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees.
The outlet added Jay Clayton, the president’s director of national intelligence, to the list on Friday.
Rumors that Wiles’ departure could be imminent have sparked a bitter battle between these rival candidates, the Washington Post reports.
Miller is apparently among those mobilizing to replace Wiles.
NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Miller, Pulte and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin have apparently started fighting for the job, although Wiles insists she has no plans to leave it anytime soon.
Trump appears to have fired the shot himself by hiring Katie Zacharia as his new press secretary without consulting his chief of staff, in a move that others in the West Wing saw as a blatant attack on Wiles.
Some MAGA allies who have responded to the president’s calls have been all too willing to provide damaging comments about his chief of staff and suggestions about who might take over if he gives him the go.
“She burned a lot of people,” a Republican strategist told Politico on Thursday.
Trump’s decision to hire Zacharia was seen by many as an attack on his chief of staff.
They didn’t have to look far to find ammunition. “Susie has a whole group of people who have monetized the (Trump) ecosystem quite spectacularly,” another adviser added.
Katie Wiles, the chief of staff’s daughter, this month reportedly joined two Wiles allies, former White House aide James Blair and former Trump campaign guru Chris LaCivita, to work for Republika Srpska.
Just on Thursday, the New York Times reported more details about the younger Wiles’ professional engagements in the autonomous, pro-Russian Serbian territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, including visits to a gas pipeline in the region with a Texas energy official.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
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