One detail stands out as especially damning in the sprawling controversy over White House aide Natalie Harp's influence over President Donald Trump, according to a Democratic strategist who once held a similar job under Barack Obama.
Greg Greene, who managed Obama’s partisan social media accounts in the first year of his presidency, told The New Republic's Greg Sargent that he's surprised by the muted reaction to reports that Harp supplied Trump with the video depicting the Obamas as apes that he posted to his Truth Social account.
"It is a massive revelation," Greene said. "I was personally not shocked, but taken aback by that confirmation, and I would say that, just as a professional who’s been in the shoes of people who post to these accounts that are widely watched, there is a serious lack of editorial judgment that is spoken to by the idea of depicting any public figure in this country, especially a former president of the United States, as an ape. I don’t understand how that had not been a bigger story up to now."
Sargent and Greene agreed that under a conventional presidency, or certainly a Democratic one, whoever was responsible for publishing that kind of image under the president's own accounts would be fired immediately.
"I absolutely do think someone would get fired instantly," Greene said, "and more than that, I can think of any number of people who you and I both know, from my time working at the Democratic National Committee, at whose hands I might not even be alive right now had I been so irresponsible with the privilege I had of administering those accounts. It is not only a firing offense, in my view, but it’s unspeakable."
Trump social media posts have depicted him as Jesus Christ and as a fighter pilot dropping feces on "No Kings" protesters, and Greene argued this reflects Harp's documented devotion to Trump — including letters in which she reportedly called herself "unworthy" and sought his approval — and suggested it helps explain why Trump's online persona has increasingly taken on a "personalist-dictator" quality.
"It’s really degrading and sordid to be governed in this way — to have the highest office in the land used as a vehicle for glorification of someone who would post material depicting a former president as an ape," Greene said. "Who would post material depicting himself as a fighter pilot dropping poop on No Kings protesters, who are his fellow Americans, on whose behalf he’s supposed to be governing."
"It is a day-in and day-out sordid spectacle, and for me personally, I find this — I don’t take it as a personal embarrassment, because I’m not in the White House, I have long since been away from the role of posting social media for people in high office," Greene added. "But I do find this incredibly disappointing and concerning, because the access that she has, both to his information flow and to his accounts, really creates problems for people who are concerned about misuse of that access for various purposes, whether insider trading or worse."