This story has been updated with comment from the White House.
After President Donald Trump escaped Turkey in a catering cart alongside his close aide, Natalie Harp, the 35-year-old captured the attention of a senator and sparked a media frenzy.
That prompted her own estranged brother to speak out about what he called her “unhealthy obsession” with Trump, telling Raw Story he took particular issue with his sister’s public proclamations that Trump saved her life when she battled cancer.
“Donald Trump wouldn't save your life if you didn't have insurance," said Preston Harp, 38, in a phone interview from Masaya, Nicaragua, where he now lives.
"To me, it's a meaningless statement. He didn't save her life. He just changed the law that happened to work in her advantage, and that's great.
“I literally see people's lives getting saved every time that I come to the hospital here [in Nicaragua), and it's all for free, and I don't see anybody sleeping outside the hospital. I don't see anybody dying outside the hospital like I literally did in L.A.”
Natalie spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2020 about being “the victim of a notoriously deadly medical error,” only to then be diagnosed with a rare terminal bone cancer.
“I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for you,” Natalie said, addressing Trump and saying his signing of the Right to Try law gave her access to experimental drugs that beat her cancer.
She compared him to George Bailey, the hero of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“They didn't give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President, you did, and without you, I'd have died waiting for them to be approved.”
Preston, who hasn’t spoken with Natalie since their dad died in July 2020, said he couldn’t afford insurance while living in the United States and previously flew to Nicaragua for medical treatments before moving there. Last year he suffered a serious motorcycle accident, and his physical therapy treatment at the public hospital has been free.
“Think about how large the military budget is, and how that money could be used for the public good with public hospitals,” Preston said. “That would be Donald Trump saving people's lives if he made a public health system and cut the military budget.”
Preston Harp (provided photo)
Preston said he became a registered member of the Peace and Freedom Party, a socialist group, when he was about 18 years old after reading “A People's History of the United States” by Howard Zinn.
Preston said he and Natalie “weren't allowed to” talk politics by their mother, with whom he also hasn’t spoken since his father’s death.
“She didn't want my point of view ever to be shared with Natalie,” Preston said.
He said his mother was “extremely conservative” and his father supported Republicans like Bush and Ronald Reagan, but “when he saw the level of depravity that is Trump’s that he started changing.”
Preston recalled Natalie writing letters to Trump and President George W. Bush growing up.
As Trump’s son Eric Trump and MAGA supporters blasted CNN and other media outlets for speaking with Preston, he said he’s heard from some critics.
“I got a death threat in my email, but I just laughed it off,” Preston said.
The White House responded to Raw Story's questions with a statement.
"Natalie Harp is one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump's team," said Davis Ingle, White House spokesman. "The Fake News’s continued attacks on President Trump and his Administration prove exactly why trust in media is at historic lows. The media should get back to reporting real news and stop regurgitating Trump-Deranged liberal talking points.”
