Donald Trump’s favorite aide, Natalie Harp, set off a flurry of panic and anger at the White House on Thursday after she informed the president of rumors of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles leaving.
According to a report from Politico Playbook, Harp printed out a copy of its Playbook newsletter about Wiles’ future for the president, setting off what three people described to Playbook as a “freakout.”
Two people with knowledge told Playbook that Harp printed Thursday’s newsletter, which reported that Trump has been asking allies about replacing Wiles. Trump “blew up” over more bad headlines about his chief of staff, and Wiles and allies “burn[ed] up phones around town” trying to quell the situation, Playbook reported.
The Daily Beast, summarizing Politico’s report, said other aides call Harp, who holds the title Special Assistant and Executive Assistant to the President, the “human printer” because she prints articles and online comments for Trump.
Trump made more calls to allies about Wiles after reading Playbook, according to a person with direct knowledge. Playbook said another name is now being floated in Trump world as a possible future chief of staff: Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton.
“The White House is in a state of panic. Susie is looking over her shoulder, trying to solicit people to go out and say good things about her and her team and make it seem like everything is fine. It’s not,” a person close to the president told Playbook.
Playbook said the storm is unlikely to calm after New York Times reporting that gave more details on the overseas work of Wiles’ daughter, along with other allies involved in the Republika Srpska controversy. Wiles’ daughter Katie is a partner at a lobbying firm that registered this year to lobby for the Bosnian Serb territory, the Daily Beast reported earlier this month. Her spokesperson has said she “has not spoken with any United States Government official regarding Srpska.”
Trump has denied the Playbook report. In a statement to Politico he called it “TOTAL FAKE NEWS” and said: “Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff — there is a reason for that.”
The White House pushed back again on the latest story. “What an unbelievably stupid and false claim from yet another anonymous ‘source,’” White House spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement. “Nobody read the story and freaked out because, frankly, nobody reads Politico in the first place. To quote the greatest President in American history — FAKE NEWS POLITICO!”