World
Trump gave aide Natalie Harp $45,000: Why holiday cash gift is under scrutiny
Donald Trump gave four close White House aides holiday cash gifts totalling $155,000, raising questions about federal ethics rules.
FULL ARTICLE · The Indian Express World
4 min readUpdated: Sep 10, 2026 03:37 PM IST
President Donald Trump and executive assistant Natalie Harp. (AP Photo)
US President Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash (approximately 42.8 lakh) gifts to three White House aides, including Natalie Harp, and $20,000 (about ₹19 lakh) to another, according to newly released financial disclosures. The payments prompted questions about federal ethics rules governing government employees, The Washington Post reported.
The gifts of $45,000 each to executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris, as well as a $20,000 gift for director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta, were noted in the staffers’ annual financial disclosure forms that were published by the administration last week.
Natalie Harp, an executive assistant to US President Donald Trump. (Photo: AP)
Margo Martin with US President Donald Trump. (Instagram/@margomartin)
Harp, Martin and Harris make $150,000 (about ₹1.43 crore) annually, and Nauta is paid $175,000 a year, according to the White House’s salary disclosure report to Congress. The disclosures described the payments as holiday cash gifts.
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White House · Ethics
Trump's holiday gifts to aides: how big were they?
Four White House aides received cash gifts from the President, disclosed in new financial filings — and now facing scrutiny over how they compare to government salaries.
The gifts Why the scrutiny Who are they
Salary vs. gift, aide by aide
The gold segment is the President's cash gift, shown as a share of each aide's annual government salary.
Natalie Harp30%
Salary: $150,000Gift: $45,000
Margo Martin30%
Salary: $150,000Gift: $45,000
Chamberlain Harris30%
Salary: $150,000Gift: $45,000
Walt Nauta11.4%
Salary: $175,000Gift: $20,000
Two views, one open question
Legal question — not a proven violation
White House says
- A longstanding Christmas-gifting practice
- Personal gifts, not government pay
- Not connected to official duties
- Therefore permissible under the rules
Ethics questions
- Federal law restricts outside pay supplementing a government salary
- Richard Painter (ex-Bush ethics lawyer): gifts may violate that rule
- Don Fox (ex-acting OGE director): facts don't clearly show a violation, but calls the payments "troublesome"
The four aides
Natalie Harp, 35
Executive assistant to the President · $150,000 salary
Known as Trump's "human printer" for carrying a portable printer and supplying him with news stories and social-media printouts. A former OAN anchor, she's a constant, close presence by his side.
Margo Martin, 31
Communications adviser · $150,000 salary
Worked in Trump's first administration, then followed him to Palm Beach after 2020 to help run his media operation. Returned to the White House after the 2024 election.
Chamberlain Harris, 26
Deputy director, Oval Office operations · $150,000 salary
Also appointed to the US Commission of Fine Arts, where she manages Trump's Presidential Portrait Project alongside the Smithsonian.
Walt Nauta
Director, Oval Office operations · $175,000 salary
A former Trump valet, Nauta was charged alongside Trump in the classified-documents case; those charges were later dismissed.
Source: CNN, NBC News, Newsweek, Associated Press — citing Washington Post reporting and White House financial disclosure filings, Sept 9, 2026. This is a developing story.
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White House says payments were permissible
The White House said Trump has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including employees in government and during his private-sector career.
It maintained that the payments were unrelated to the aides’ official government duties and, therefore, permissible under applicable legal and ethical standards. The White House did not disclose whether other staffers received similar gifts.
Ethics experts raise questions
The size of the payments has raised questions about federal restrictions on additional compensation for government employees.
Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W Bush, told The Washington Post that the payments appear to violate a federal law prohibiting the supplementation of federal employees’ salaries from outside sources.
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Not all experts agree there was a violation
But former acting Office of Government Ethics director Don Fox said the available facts do not establish that the payments violated that prohibition. He said the question could depend on the circumstances in which the gifts were made, including whether they were intended to supplement an employee’s government salary.
Even without a violation, Fox called the payments “troublesome,” saying he would feel uncomfortable or beholden to someone who gave him such a large gift.
The four aides are part of Trump’s close circle
Harp, Trump’s executive assistant and a frequent presence at his side, is known for carrying a portable printer to provide him with paper copies of news reports and social-media posts. Harp’s close personal loyalty to Trump has also drawn attention — in letters reportedly written to him in 2023, she described him as her “Guardian and Protector in this Life” and said she never wanted to let him down.
US President Donald Trump with White House aide Chamberlain Harris. (Instagram/@chamberlainharris)
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Walt Nauta with Donald Trump. (Photo: Reuters)
Martin, a communications adviser, began working for Trump during his first White House term as a press assistant. After Trump lost the 2020 election, she followed him to Palm Beach, Florida, where she helped run his media operations. She returned to the White House after Trump’s 2024 election victory. Harris is deputy director of Oval Office operations and was appointed by Trump earlier this year to the US Commission of Fine Arts, which has oversight of his White House ballroom project.
Nauta, the director of Oval Office operations and a former Trump valet, was charged in 2023 alongside Trump and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira in the classified-documents case. The charges were dismissed in 2024.
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