President Donald Trump's executive assistant Natalie Harp faced criticism over a Truth Social post claiming a critical Iranian oil island was being destroyed, which a U.S. official said was not targeted.
A U.S. official said the overnight strikes did not target Kharg Island, Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali reported Monday morning. A post claiming the Island had been blown to "smithereens" went up on Trump's Truth Social account at 10:08 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, hours after American forces struck Iran.
A 10-second video of a burning refinery complex paired with the post included the caption, "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!"
Phillips P. O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, aimed his response at Harp rather than at the president.
"Poor Natalie got confused between Kharg Island and Larak Island--worshipping can be such exhausting business," O'Brien wrote on X Monday morning.
Harp has been reported for months to be the aide who physically publishes material to the president's account. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Harp supplies Trump with stacks of printed drafts and waits for his approval before posting, often during overnight hours.
The 34-year-old is a former conservative television anchor who joined Trump's circle ahead of the 2024 election. Colleagues have nicknamed her the "human printer" for the portable printer she carries, the Journal reported.
Harp "plays into the less productive and more troublesome parts of his nature, putting things in front of him that aren't vetted," one of those four people told MS NOW.
One national security official raised concerns that Harp's proximity to Trump gave her access to more sensitive information than anyone else in his orbit, MS NOW reported. Colleagues had made "subtle moves" to create distance between Harp and the president, another of the four people told the outlet.
The criticism resumed Monday morning, hours after the post appeared, as commentators connected it to that earlier reporting.
"Trump is winning the Iran War in the AI world Natalie Harp has created for him," MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote on X.
Marcy Wheeler, a national security journalist, tied the post directly to the question of who is running the war.
"How does the Commander in Chief post AI slop claiming to have 'blown to smithereens' a sensitive island when that's not what was struck at all?" Wheeler wrote. "What OTHER key actions in this war is he entirely confused about? Is the Commander in Chief even in charge? If not, who is?"
American forces did strike an Iranian island on Sunday, but it was not the one named in the post.
U.S. Central Command announced strikes on two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, a U.S. official said, marking the first American strikes on Iran in more than a month.
Analysts have long treated a strike on Kharg's oil facilities as a far greater escalation than one on a launcher site, AP reported, because it would cut off the revenue that funds the Iranian government.
Harp's role became a public argument two weeks ago, when a single line from a Democratic senator drew a sustained response from the White House.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) named Harp during a rally in Atlanta on Aug. 16, in a passage otherwise devoted to the president's priorities.
"He doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar," Ossoff said, according to Forbes.
Outrage from the White House reached a fever pitch for more than a week, involving the president, his spokespeople, and his family. Trump called Ossoff a "Pee-wee Herman look-alike" when a reporter asked about the remark and did not address Harp directly, Forbes reported. The White House then attacked the reporter who asked the question, CNN's Kristen Holmes.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle called Ossoff's comments "cringeworthy" and criticized the senator's voting record, he told TIME.
"It's been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week," Ossoff later told MS NOW.
The response generated weeks of coverage examining Harp's access that the original remark had not. Posts from Trump's account have been deleted before after drawing complaints, including two involving artificial intelligence.
Harp posted a video containing racist imagery depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, along with an AI-generated image portraying Trump as a Christ-like figure, MS NOW reported.
Both posts were deleted following bipartisan backlash, and Trump told reporters on Feb. 6 that he did not post the Obama video, saying "somebody else" did and that it was "slipped and missed" during review.
Twelve days later, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump's posts "should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration" because they came "straight from the horse's mouth," The Independent reported.
"When you see it on Truth Social, you know it's directly from President Trump," Leavitt said at the Feb. 18 briefing.