49% of the US voted for a man who needs constant validation of being a good boy who is loved like a sick toddler. How child like this little boy mind in a man’s body who will be making the decisions that effect all our lives. How did out country become this way, come to this point? We used to have standards for president, until Grover Norquist famously said We don’t need someone who can think. We need someone with enough digits to hold a pen. We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals, and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.Hugs
I just read that Arab leadership in Michigan and other states that voted for tRump as a protest vote against Harris are upset with tRump’s anti-Arab pro-Israel cabinet picks. What the hell did they think. tRump and all of us told them that tRump has long wanted the Palestinians gone and the West Bank and Gaza returned to the full Israeli country. He talked about resorts on the ocean of Gaza. We warned these people but they had to make a stand against Harris for not saying harder stuff against Israel when tRump was busy telling Bib to just go get the job done. They joined the leopard eat people face party and are upset the leopard is eating their face now. Hugs
Natalie Harp, a 33-year-old former anchor on a right-wing cable show, is poised to become the gatekeeper for information to and from the president.
Natalie Harp, little known outside President-elect Donald J. Trump’s immediate orbit, has become one of his closest aides.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have covered Donald Trump for many years. They reported from Washington.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has always demanded loyalty from his aides, but few have answered the call quite like Natalie Harp.
A 33-year-old former far-right cable host, Ms. Harp is nearly always at Mr. Trump’s side. She has written him a series of devotional letters, including one that said, “You are all that matters to me.” Once, when Mr. Trump was playing golf in Scotland, she ran behind his cart to keep him up to date with positive stories and social media posts.
Little known beyond Mr. Trump’s immediate orbit, Ms. Harp is now poised to play a potentially influential role in his White House, sitting right outside the Oval Office and acting as the conduit for a largely unsupervised flow of information to and from the president and helping him with his social media feed.
She has no official title, but during the campaign, colleagues referred to her as the “human printer” because she followed Mr. Trump around with a portable printer and a battery pack to charge it, so she could hand him information in hard copy, as he prefers.
But Ms. Harp also established herself at the center of a fast-moving carousel of text messages, articles and tidbits directed at Mr. Trump. This has generated concern among other aides who feel she has been far too willing to serve as a funnel for conspiratorial information at a moment when Mr. Trump appears more contemptuous than ever of attempts to manage or control him. One of her go-to news sources, people who have observed her say, is the website Gateway Pundit, which frequently disseminates conspiracy theories embraced by the far right.
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Ms. Harp shares text messages, articles and gossip with Mr. Trump that often ends up mirrored on his social media accounts.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
In recent weeks, people with knowledge of her performance say, she has been more willing to operate within the transition team’s chain of command. Still, her role over most of the past three years speaks to Mr. Trump’s desire to maintain open channels to a wide assortment of people and unvetted sources of information. And it underscores his tendency to surround himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear. A top adviser to Mr. Trump used to say he would ask 49 people what they thought of something, stopping only at 50 if the last person told him what he wanted to hear.
Ms. Harp fits well inside those patterns, people who work with Mr. Trump have said. They have described her as a conduit, rather than a filter, and an instant enabler of his impulses. She types up his thoughts as he dictates them and she quickly dispatches them onto social media. She has sometimes arranged media interviews for him without the knowledge of Mr. Trump’s press team.
The Trump transition team declined to make Ms. Harp available for an interview.
‘Trusted and Valued’
Mr. Trump has dismissed concerns about Ms. Harp, whom he calls “sweetie” and treats like a daughter, according to people close to him. They say he appreciates Ms. Harp in part because she was among the few aides working for him when he was still something of a political outcast, after he was voted out of office and after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Steven Cheung, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, said Ms. Harp was “trusted and valued” and credited her “work ethic and dedication” for helping Mr. Trump win the election.
In response to a request for comment for this article, the Trump campaign also asked several allies to provide character references. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina described Ms. Harp as professional and dedicated. Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas said she had a “bubbly, outgoing attitude” that helped keep Mr. Trump in high spirits.
But her direct relationship with Mr. Trump means that she has often operated largely outside the supervision of more senior aides, a situation that has at times raised alarms among some members of his inner circle who would like to see tighter control of what information he is receiving. When people seeking influence with Mr. Trump want to turn him against their rivals, they send damaging clips to Ms. Harp, knowing she will pass them along, unvetted.
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Mr. Trump and Ms. Harp during a tournament at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
She is omnipresent in images of Mr. Trump on the campaign trail and in the days since he won the election. A Trump campaign documentary produced by Tucker Carlson showed Ms. Harp stationed next to Mr. Trump, taking dictation for Truth Social posts.
When Mr. Trump sent angry text messages to the billionaire donor Miriam Adelson over the summer, it was Ms. Harp who pressed send, according to two people with knowledge of the incident. The texts almost cost Mr. Trump the support of one of his party’s biggest donors, before intermediaries worked to repair the relationship.
Ms. Harp provided Mr. Trump an article that had an illustration of him wielding a baseball bat next to the head of Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, who was on the verge of indicting him. Mr. Trump quickly posted it to social media but deleted it after his lawyers pleaded with him to do so.
She was by Mr. Trump’s side at Mar-a-Lago, taking dictation for his social media diatribe of more than 40 posts against E. Jean Carroll, whom he had been found liable for sexually abusing. Other Trump aides who were not at the club at the time were helpless to stop him.
The most recent incident was a sign of the higher stakes as Mr. Trump returns to the White House. Ms. Harp posted what was supposed to be a private message to Mr. Trump from President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for all to see, shortly before the two leaders met in person for the first time in five years.
‘I Want to Bring You Joy’
Ms. Harp, a devout Christian who grew up in California, first caught the attention of Mr. Trump in 2019 when she appeared on Fox News and credited him with saving her life.
She had bone cancer, she said, and legislation that Mr. Trump signed in 2018, the Right to Try law, saved her by giving her access to experimental treatments. It is unclear what drugs she was referring to.
Mr. Trump loved the story and invited her to speak on his behalf at the 2020 Republican National Convention. She joined his staff in 2022, after leaving her job as an anchor at the far-right One America News Network, where she further endeared herself to Mr. Trump by endorsing his baseless claims about the 2020 election being stolen.
Mr. Trump once remarked, while angry after his arraignment in Fulton County, Ga., in 2023, that Ms. Harp was the only member of his staff who cared about him, according to two people familiar with the comment.
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Ms. Harp with one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers during his criminal trial in New York this year.Credit…Pool photo by Charly Triballeau
In 2023, Ms. Harp sent a series of letters to Mr. Trump that unnerved people around him, according to a half-dozen people with knowledge of them.
“You are all that matters to me,” she wrote in one of the letters, which were seen by The New York Times. The letters’ authenticity was confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of them.
“I don’t ever want to let you down,” Ms. Harp wrote, thanking Mr. Trump for being her “Guardian and Protector in this Life.”
In another letter, she told Mr. Trump that she wanted to get back to “that synergy” she used to have with him, where “we’d talk about everything and nothing.”
“I want to bring you joy,” she wrote, “to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk ‘work.’”
At the White House, Ms. Harp is likely to serve a role unlike any presidential adviser in modern history.
While the incoming staff secretary, Will Scharf, will be tasked with managing the paper flow in and out of the president’s office, those who have worked closely with Mr. Trump know that as long as Ms. Harp is around there will inevitably be an entirely separate stream of information to his desk.
That is a change from Mr. Trump’s first four years in office, when the staff members who controlled his social media feed usually alerted higher-ups of potentially problematic posts, like dismissals of significant advisers.
Ms. Harp, by contrast, has mostly run her own program.
Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump.More about Maggie Haberman
The bible lessons were pushed by Jonathan Covey [photo], head of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Texas Values, which has appeared here multiple times in the past. In February 2015, on the tenth anniversary of the Texas state ban on same-sex marriage, Texas Values held a “banniversary” celebration complete with a cake-cutting ceremony. The actual tenth “banniversary” wasn’t until November 2015, but Texas Values held their little party months early because they rightly feared what the Supreme Court would ultimately rule in June of that year.
I had a classmate tell me that Dems would do better if we dropped the “whole bathroom thing.” I educated him that this was not a fight we chose and that trans people have been around for decades using the bathrooms they fit in best. It was Republicans that made it a “thing.”
All of the “hot button social issues” are issues created and kept alive by Republicans. People are just trying to live their lives, and the GQP decides they’re doing it wrong.
Look, I genuinely don’t care who is in the bathroom with me, but the law you’re proposing says the person on the left should use the women’s bathroom and the person on the right should use the men’s bathroom https://t.co/isL1hCofbIpic.twitter.com/drWWVnSyIL
A Trump supporting, anti-trans, anti-gay Republican was elected commissioner of the county where I grew up. He won despite being in jail on election night for a sexual assault in Vegas. It’s now come out that the woman he assaulted was his daughter. fox59.com/news/indycri…
Three wives, adultery with an employee, and an alleged sexual assault is what Jesus would want.
Appearing on a Christian nationalist podcast last night, Pete Hegseth said he's creating a system of "classical Christian schools" to provide recruits for an underground army that will eventually launch an "educational insurgency" across the nation. https://t.co/OnW3oNXoDfpic.twitter.com/dSb0RB8Y5Q
Failure to provide anything close to real, immediate funding for Helene recovery is appalling. Instead, the GOP legislature used financial crumbs to cover for massive power grabs.https://t.co/dsAwcASthH
I spent today with local leaders, business owners, and volunteers in western North Carolina. Many people and communities are hurting and need our help. But instead of stepping up, the Republicans in the General Assembly are grabbing power and exacting political retribution. How…
Notice the similarity to US politicians? See how he lied to gin up outrage over the idea of woke left taking away a right of prayer from the people. It was a lie that he repeated to stir anger and win votes. Hugs
The subject may not be for everyone; you’ll be able to tell by reading rawgod’s piece, and then decide whether to read the other blog posts. I am engrossed in this, because of raising a child, and later work in the schools here. Of course, there is another entire point beside that, which is humans keeping an open mind in regard to our treatment of other human beings. Give it a look!
What I like about this video is he uses the bibles own words against the followers of the bible’s vengeful angry god who worship the bible instead of following the teachings of Jesus. The bible is a story of a people looking for god, finding god, running away from god, disobeying god, and returning to god. It is not a thing to worship as even the bible says don’t worship the book. Instead the Christians follow Jesus and his teachings. How many Christians today such as Nancy Mace should really call themselves Biblians because they follow a collection of stories about the people instead of the New Testament of the Jesus. Hugs
Incredible. I never heard a religious leader say that the Christian lifestyle is not for everyone and that if you feel you can not follow Jesus’s command to love and care for others, help those that need help, care for the stranger, then it clearly is not for you. He tells the story that a man came up to his pastor and said that leftist stuff doesn’t work, when the pastor points out those are Jesus’s words the man responds well it may have worked in his day but not today. Wonderful video. Hugs
At six being a girl meant Tinkerbell nail polish and pointed, pink Barbie shoes. Sequined fairy wands and slippers that fell off my feet when I ran. Outside the blue sky a backdrop for green grass, the sweet gum tree that was home base. Everything caught my eye and sparkled. Rain-freshened earthworms, armored rollie-pollies, and firefly dots. At night the television played the news. Its cyclopean eye returned my stare. The goat-like pupil reflected a parade of women and girls like ewes. Fair and lovely. I thought they were adored. Later, I was not a girl anymore.1
1. Stardate 2373, Earthdate 12.25.2021: I watch the crew stand on deck and chart a course around the asteroid. I want Roddenberrian optimism, but I worry that one of us misunderstands a time-paradox. I worry one of us misunderstands humanoids.
The rerun ends and another documentary begins. Onscreen a model James Webb unfolds its mirrors
Poems are bullshit unless they are broken like a horse, like a dog kicked in the ribs, Like your favorite toy that’s missing an arm.
Love can make you feel used. I want the poem that limps back to me. Poems should hurt like love, like ice water on your teeth like a massage to smooth out a cramped muscle.
Give me the poem that’s like leather. Give me the poem that smells like gasoline. I want a poem that is a warning, a poem that makes me check to see if I left the shotgun by the door, a poem that’s a runny nose, a sneeze, a poem that’s the moment the sky turns green.
Scottie's Playtime 