Donald Trump’s ever-present aide, Natalie Harp, played a key role in helping the president turn taxpayer money into a means of self-aggrandizement, a new report reveals.
In a strategy meeting in the Oval Office, Trump asked Harp to release footage of the kind of flattering images of himself he wanted to see in ads, the New York Times reported. Harp quickly agreed, showing clips of Trump in front of massive crowds and under fighter jets, among other images.
The 13 partisan ads (so far) praise Trump, 80, for his military prowess in Iran and Venezuela, tout his much-criticized tariffs and repeatedly state in one ad that “God made Trump” because he needed the president’s help.
Trump uses $20 million in taxpayer-provided Homeland Security funds to pay for ads, even though he recently boasted of having access to “nearly $1 billion” in his political super PAC, MAGA Inc. (In reality, that amount would be closer to $415 million, according to official filings.)
Instead, Trump ordered Office of Management and Budget chief Russell Vought to find government money. The video ads are all labeled “public service announcements.”
Trump unveiled his unprecedented self-aggrandizement campaign during a meeting with Republican strategists in the Oval Office in early August, The New York Times reported.
Trump was expected to discuss how best to use money raised by the Super PAC to help struggling Republican candidates in the midterm elections. Instead, “he was much more interested in watching videos of himself,” the Times reported, citing accounts from several anonymous sources at the scene.
Trump said during the meeting that he planned to campaign for Republican candidates, but that his presidency needed to be promoted “to the forefront.”
Trump asked Harp to show those gathered the “kind of images” of himself that he likes.
Harp, the so-called “human printer” who produces positive news articles about her boss for him to read, happily went digital and she quickly viewed the recordings on her tablet for all to see.
The videos, created by the White House digital team, showed Trump amid “vast crowds” and the president under fighter jets, among other images, the newspaper reported.
One showed UFC president Dana White calling Trump “the most resilient person I’ve ever met.” Shortly after, the nonprofit Securing American Greatness, at a cost of about $60,000, aired a spot featuring White’s quote, according to AdImpact.
The ad aired largely in Washington during the first days of September, where the president could see it.
Trump’s self-promotional propaganda blitz has since expanded across the country and to major television networks, including CBS, MS NOW, Fox News, ABC and NBC.
The first disturbing ad was a dark vision of a serious Trump amid high-speed footage of the repeated message, “America will never be a communist country,” beneath a song that kept repeating, “Love me.”
Democrats and Republicans alike have attacked publicly funded partisan ads.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said on X that the ads “may constitute criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
An unsigned statement from the Times press office said “the public service announcements are intended to remind Americans to love their country and understand what is worth fighting for, at home, on our borders and abroad.”
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