Trump gives $155,000 in cash gifts to White House aides including Natalie Harp
Financial disclosure filings show Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to three White House assistants and $20,000 to an operations director, prompting ethics questions over federal salary rules.
Financial disclosures and cash gifts
Annual financial disclosure forms released by the administration reveal that US President Donald Trump gave cash holiday gifts to four White House aides. Executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris each received 45,000 dollars. Director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta received a 20,000 dollar gift from Trump. The payments, listed on government forms as holiday cash gifts, total 155,000 dollars across the four staff members, including 135,000 dollars distributed among the three executive and communications assistants.
- Natalie Harp
- 45000 $
- Margo Martin
- 45000 $
- Chamberlain Harris
- 45000 $
- Walt Nauta
- 20000 $
Ethics rules and White House response
The 45,000 dollar payments represent nearly one-third of the 150,000 dollar annual government salaries earned by Harp, Martin, and Harris, while Nauta receives an annual salary of 175,000 dollars. Ethics specialists raised legal questions regarding the payments, pointing to federal statutes that prohibit supplementing the salaries of government employees with outside funds. Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer during the administration of President George W. Bush, stated that the payments appear to violate those federal restrictions.
He is clearly trying to help out their financial situation while they are serving in the White House.
The White House press office defended the payments on the social media platform X, stating that Trump followed a longstanding personal tradition of providing holiday gifts to people in his orbit during his careers in both the private sector and public office. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said the gifts had no connection to official government responsibilities.
The gifts at issue here are completely unrelated to these individuals' official government duties and are therefore entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.
- Natalie Harp
- 150000 $
- Margo Martin
- 150000 $
- Chamberlain Harris
- 150000 $
- Walt Nauta
- 175000 $
Roles of the rewarded aides
The four recipients hold close operational and communications roles within Trump's inner circle. Margo Martin, aged 31, has worked with Trump since his first presidential term, moving to Palm Beach, Florida, to help run his media operations after the 2020 election before returning to the White House following his 2024 victory. Chamberlain Harris, aged 26, serves as deputy director of Oval Office operations and was appointed by Trump to the US Commission of Fine Arts, which oversees the planned White House ballroom project. Walt Nauta, who previously served as Trump's personal valet, was charged in 2023 with conspiring to obstruct an FBI investigation into classified documents before those charges were dismissed in 2024.
Scrutiny around Natalie Harp
Extensive scrutiny has focused on 35-year-old Natalie Harp, a former conservative television host who manages Trump's communications and daily information access. Harp frequently carries a portable printer to provide Trump with paper printouts of articles and online posts, and she transcribes his dictated posts directly to his Truth Social account. During a departure from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump moved Harp onto a backup aircraft following a security warning while cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, remained on the initial plane. Scrutiny intensified after Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who faces a Senate re-election campaign in November, attacked Trump during a speech for focusing on his ballroom project and traveling alongside Harp on a plane provided by Qatar.
