The White House lashed out at journalist Aaron Rupar after he highlighted President Donald Trump's close aide Natalie Harp during the president's weekend trip to Ireland, extending scrutiny of an adviser who days earlier disclosed receiving a $45,000 cash holiday gift from Trump.
The White House's Rapid Response 47 account called Rupar a "sick, deluded freak" after he posted an image of Harp in Ireland and noted that she had accompanied Trump. The account later accused him of making "creepy things" about women working for the administration, according to The Daily Beast.
The dispute landed shortly after financial disclosures showed Trump gave Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris $45,000 each in 2025. Walt Nauta, director of Oval Office operations, reported receiving $20,000.
Harp, Martin and Harris each earn $150,000 annually from their White House jobs, meaning the gifts were worth roughly one-third of their government salaries. Nauta earns $175,000 a year, according to the White House personnel report cited by Reuters.
None of the aides has been accused of a crime, and legal experts differ over whether the payments violate federal law.
Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush and has frequently criticized Trump, said the payments appear to raise problems under a federal statute restricting outside supplementation of government salaries.
"A White House staffer is not your Fifth Avenue doorman," Painter wrote. He separately told The Washington Post: "He's clearly trying to make it easier for them financially to work in government service at the White House. You can't do that."
Other ethics specialists have been less definitive. Don Fox, a former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, has said the publicly known facts don't necessarily establish a violation, while raising concerns that unusually large personal gifts could create a sense of obligation. Former JD Vance counsel Sean Cooksey has argued that the payments don't violate applicable rules.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle rejected suggestions that the gifts constituted additional compensation for government work.
"The President has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector," Ingle said. "The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals' official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards."
Harp, 35, has become one of Trump's most visible behind-the-scenes aides. Reuters reported that she helps manage his Truth Social activity and carries a portable printer to supply him with hard copies of news reports and social-media posts, earning her the nickname "human printer" among colleagues.
The renewed attention followed Trump to Ireland, where he met President Catherine Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin before traveling to his golf resort in Doonbeg for the Irish Open. Trump later presented winner Shane Lowry with the tournament trophy.
Rupar posted an agency photograph of Harp during the trip with the caption "Look who made the trip to Ireland" and the hashtag #TravelWithNatalie. A subsequent video he shared showed a female White House staffer repeatedly saying "Thank you press" while moving photographers away from Trump and members of his family before his departure.
Rapid Response 47 responded: "This is a press wrangler doing her job - and doing it well. Aaron, meanwhile, is gutter trash (in his 40s) who spends his days hiding behind his keyboard and making disturbing comments about women doing their jobs. Truly a sick freak!"
Scrutiny of Harp had already increased before the Ireland trip. Sen. Jon Ossoff referenced her during an August political rally while criticizing Trump, prompting Republicans to accuse the Georgia Democrat of insinuating an improper personal relationship. Harp hasn't publicly addressed that controversy.
