Natalie Harp, the White House executive assistant at the centre of growing scrutiny over her access to President Donald Trump, has been accused of trawling the 'social media gutter' for material that reaches the president and can shape his online voice.
The latest criticism comes from Greg Greene, a former Obama social media manager, who says standards surrounding presidential social media have collapsed during Trump's second term.
Harp recently surged into headlines after Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff mocked her proximity to Trump, and afterexcerpts from the book Regime Change detailed her adoring letters to the president.
She has since been described as a gatekeeper who prints favourable coverage, helps prepare Truth Social posts and travels with Trump at all hours
Social Media Standards and the 'Human Printer' Label
Greene, who managed Barack Obama's partisan social media accounts for much of the first year of his presidency, told The New Republic that handling a president's digital voice is a 'magisterial job' requiring safeguards and restraint.
He contrasted that with what he sees in Trump's operation, citing AI-generated imagery of Trump as a fighter pilot dropping 'payloads of poop' on No Kings demonstrators and a video depicting the Obamas as apes.
'I know something about this particular job,' Greene wrote, adding that his team deliberately avoided loose words because a president's statements 'could move markets.'
He said his office built a system where no single person controlled an official account, with separate staff drafting, approving and posting to prevent one individual from owning 'the digital persona of a president of the United States.'
By his account, that discipline has eroded. Greene argued it 'hardly takes a genius to spot how the standards around Trump's social media accounts have slipped,' pointing to The New York Times' description of Harp as someone who 'supplies [the president] with content she fishes out of the social media gutter.'
The phrase has fuelled criticism from those who see her role as less about communications strategy and more about feeding Trump's most reactive impulses.
There is also the matter of access. Harp is among the few staffers reported to have access to Trump's social media accounts and, according to The New York Times, she texts with world leaders on the president's behalf while operating 'entirely outside the usual chain of command.'
That level of influence, combined with her constant physical presence, has raised questions about what gets posted and why.
Security Clearance Questions and White House Response
Compounding the controversy, MS NOW reported in August that Harp worked at the White House for more than a year without the routine security clearance normally held by West Wing staffers.
Two unnamed sources told the outlet she declined multiple times to complete the clearance process, with her reasons remaining unknown, before Trump personally intervened and she eventually completed the paperwork.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back, saying in a statement: 'Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump's team.'
The conflicting accounts have left questions over when Harp obtained the clearance and why the process took more than a year.
Greene flagged the clearance issue as particularly worrying. 'More worryingly, government agencies can't say, either,' he wrote of Harp's access, noting that he himself had no clearance at the DNC but that his team built processes so people with clearances had visibility.
He conceded Harp may be 'on the up-and-up' but said her fight for both proximity and a free hand to post on Trump's behalf is why he does not trust her.
For now, Harp remains a polarising figure inside the administration and beyond. The White House portrays her as a fiercely loyal aide and a hardworking member of Trump's team.
Critics, meanwhile, question whether an aide with such extensive access to the president and his communications has been subject to sufficient oversight. While Harp now holds a security clearance, according to the White House and MS NOW, the circumstances surrounding the reported year-long delay remain unclear.
