Joyce Carol Oates Amplifies Comparison Between Natalie Harp’s Devotion to Trump and Charles Manson’s Followers

Novelist Joyce Carol Oates took to X on Tuesday to amplify a provocative comparison likening Natalie Harp, a 35-year-old aide to former President Donald Trump, to the young women who followed cult leader Charles Manson. Oates retweeted an account she described as making a "fascinating" parallel and added her own observations about the psychology behind intense loyalty to a dominant, troubled leader.

'Whatever Trumpettes and the Natalie Harps and Manson girls didn't get from their father, mother or family they found it in Trump the sex assaulter/Manson the murderer. That's how that works. We are watching the brainwashing live in living color during the 21st century.' — @NationGrandma (retweeted by Joyce Carol Oates)

Oates expanded on the idea in follow-up posts, describing Manson as a deeply damaged figure whose control over followers is disturbing. As a fiction writer, she called Harp's public trajectory "fascinating," suggesting the story could inspire a movie or a first-person novella. Oates also invoked the psychoanalytic idea of "transference," proposing that some individuals may fixate on an older, authoritative figure to gain meaning or purpose.

Oates wrote that, in her view, Harp might have pursued other conventional options — for example, graduate study — instead of devoting herself to a singular political figure. She framed her comments as literary observation rather than an investigative claim.

Context And Fallout

The exchange comes amid renewed attention to Harp after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) briefly mentioned a "Natalie" during a campaign rally, saying Trump wants to "build his ballroom and travel with Natalie." That aside prompted efforts to clarify what Ossoff meant and fueled partisan backlash. White House spokespeople attacked Ossoff personally, while others on social media debated whether the senator's remark implied an inappropriate relationship.

Reports noted that Harp was reportedly the only female companion on the president's secret third plane out of Turkey after the NATO summit, while other aides, including former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, were left on a decoy Air Force One amid a security threat.

Harp's Background

Natalie Harp began working at the White House in January 2025. She is a former One America News Network host who, at the 2020 Republican National Convention, credited Trump's Right to Try Act with granting her access to an experimental treatment she said saved her life after a Stage 2 bone cancer diagnosis. Subsequent reporting raised questions about elements of that account.

Biographers Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, in their book Regime Change, quote Trump telling staffers, "all of you will go off and make money. She'll never leave me," a remark cited as evidence of Harp's loyalty and Trump's awareness of it.

Reaction

Oates's amplification of the Manson comparison is one of many reactions this week as commentators across the political spectrum weighed in on the public dynamic between Trump and his aides. Observers described the exchange variously as literary musing, armchair psychology, and partisan commentary. The debate highlights how quickly private relationships within a political team can become public flashpoints.

Note: This article reports on public statements, social-media posts, published reporting and a published book. Where allegations or claims are cited (for example, about Harp's medical account), they are attributed to reporting rather than presented as established fact.