President Donald Trump drafts a Truth Social post alongside Vice President JD Vance and Assistant to the President Natalie Harp during a meeting with European leaders, Monday, August 18, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok
Is Natalie Harp a security threat? Counterintelligence is not merely the hunt for proven traitors but the management of access, leverage, and vulnerability before damage occurs. By that standard, the arrangement created exclusively for Harp for well over a year was plainly a security risk, for which the White House owes the country an explanation.
Yesterday, MSNOW reported that, for over a year, Harp repeatedly declined to seek the routine clearance generally obtained by West Wing staff. Two people familiar with the matter said that there is still no explanation for why she did not pursue the clearance. Still, she kept receiving extensions, even after the Secret Service and senior aides raised concerns. Only after the White House counsel’s office escalated the matter and Donald Trump personally intervened did Harp submit the requisite forms, undergo a federal background investigation, and receive a clearance.
According to MSNOW, “One national security official voiced concern that Harp’s proximity to the president — in the West Wing and his residence — gives her access to the most sensitive information around Trump, more than nearly all other senior White House officials.”
Three other people told the network that the Secret Service had raised security concerns about Harp during Trump’s first year back in office, both because of her extraordinary access to the president and because of her failure to obtain a clearance.
It is unclear whether she eventually got the clearance on her own or because of Trump’s intervention. Still, even if we take the administration’s explanation at face value that she passed the vet without help, several questions remain about the counterintelligence risk permeating this White House.