Natalie Harp, President Donald Trump’s 35-year-old executive assistant, went more than a year without obtaining the routine security clearance that West Wing staffers typically receive upon taking their positions.
The Secret Service, the White House counsel’s office, and senior security officials grew alarmed over Harp’s failure to obtain the clearance, with Trump ultimately intervening personally to resolve the matter.
Harp only completed the required forms to launch a formal federal background investigation and received her clearance “in recent months,” according to reporting that cited two people familiar with the matter.
The lapse is considered significant given Harp’s seemingly unfettered access to the president and the highly sensitive information that surrounds him on a daily basis.
The Secret Service raised multiple internal security concerns about Harp during Trump’s first year of his second term, both regarding her proximity to the president and her failure to secure the necessary clearance.
One national security official expressed concern that Harp’s position at Trump’s side gives her access to highly sensitive information that few other senior White House officials would be privy to.
Trump’s top staff reportedly made “subtle moves” to curb how much time Harp spends at the president’s side, but those efforts proved unsuccessful, according to one source.
“She is just persistent and not realizing that’s what they were trying to do,” the source said, describing the internal frustration over her continued proximity to Trump.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back firmly on the characterization of any security concerns, saying, “Natalie Harp has a security clearance like everyone else, and she is a loyal and hardworking member of President Trump’s team.”
Harp, who serves as a kind of gatekeeper to the president by vetting what information actually reaches him, received multiple extensions to complete her security clearance paperwork, a senior White House official confirmed.
West Wing employees typically fill out lengthy forms covering past residences, financial history, and foreign contacts when they first take their positions, initiating a federal background investigation from the outset.
Scrutiny of Harp’s role has intensified after it emerged she was among the few aides who accompanied Trump on a confidential flight out of Turkey amid an Iranian assassination threat.
Her estranged brother, Preston Harp, told CNN that she had an “unhealthy obsession” with Trump, prompting a fierce backlash from MAGA supporters directed at the network.
The clearance controversy echoes similar issues from Trump’s first term, when he overrode concerns from intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer to grant son-in-law Jared Kushner a top-secret clearance in 2018, according to The New York Times.
That same year, White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned after his two former wives accused him of physical abuse, with then-FBI Director Christopher Wray contradicting the White House’s claim that Porter’s background check was still ongoing.
