The White House's furious reaction to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) mocking President Donald Trump's reliance on aide Natalie Harp reveals deep anxiety about the 80-year-old's visible decline, according to a new column.
Salon's Amanda Marcotte argued Wednesday that Ossoff's brief mention of Harp, the president's close personal aide, "struck a nerve" because it served to shine a light on something many had already noticed.
"Some have speculated that given Trump’s long history of chronic adultery, there might be something more to the arrangement," Marcotte wrote. "Others, pointing to Trump’s strange gait and prominent backside, which is often seen to have an odd shape, wonder if he might be forced to wear a medical device or garments. The expanding size of the bag Harp lugs around isn’t helping dissuade rumors that nursing duties are an important part of her job."
"Whatever the case, the rumors have served to draw more attention to Trump’s age," the columnist added. "But just the fact that he requires a woman to linger around him all the time, ready to express her devotion and that of his most ardent followers, isn’t a great look."
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman described the 35-year-old aide as Trump's "binkie," writing in the book "Regime Change" with colleague Jonathan Swan that Harp's role is essentially soothing the president by leaving him affirming notes and carrying a briefcase of flattering clippings to calm him when his mood needs stabilizing.
The White House response, Marcotte argued, only underscored the apparent anxiety about the president's fitness. Communications director Steven Cheung called Ossoff "the biggest cuck loser in politics," and aide Davis Ingle labeled him a "cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid" — both posting the same clip of a composed, confident Ossoff. Trump himself told a CNN reporter Ossoff looked like "Pee-wee Herman," a jab Marcotte called homophobic, antisemitic and outdated.
"It’s one more reminder that the president is very old," she wrote. "The character’s silver screen debut in 1985’s 'Pee-wee’s Big Adventure' came two years before Ossoff was even born. Back then, calling a Jewish man 'Pee-wee' to impugn his manhood was probably a huge hit with the bigots at the country club. Now it’s just confusing, especially since [the late actor Paul] Reubens is widely regarded as a comedy legend."
Macrotte cited a Reuters/Ipsos poll that found 64 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance, along with his unmet economic promises, an unresolved conflict with Iran, and recent health commentary from cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who wrote in the New York Times that Trump "has not looked well," citing bruised hands, swollen legs and daytime drowsiness.
"Whatever the extent of Natalie Harp’s duties, it seems undeniable that she is there to keep the temperamental president calm by distracting him from his own failures with words of praise," Marcotte wrote. "That he needs this is a sign of profound weakness. Stable adults do not need full-time babysitters. That Harp’s job even exists is a testament to Trump’s incredible narcissism, but it also carries more than a whiff of elder care and suspicions about medical conditions that require monitoring and placating."
The White House's frenzied response is telling, she added.
"The White House’s extreme response only serves to underscore how worried they are about the narrative being created — one they themselves weaponized against another aging president, Joe Biden," Marcotte wrote. "By flipping out at anyone who brings it up, they’re only ensuring more people are paying attention."
