New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan recoiled on a podcast this week when the host pressed him about President Donald Trump's relationship with White House aide Natalie Harp.
Swan, who co-wrote "Regime Change", a new book on Trump's second term, was taken aback when Miller, a Bulwark writer-at-large and former Republican strategist, asked him about his reporting on Harp's "love notes" to Trump on The Bulwark Daily.
"I'm not gonna let you go without asking about Natalie just a little bit," Miller said. "I mean, the mash notes, the love notes."
"Maggie did duck the question that I had about whether Trump is impotent or not," Miller continued, referring to Haberman.
"Oh my god! Dude!" Swan said.
"Do you have any reporting on that?" Miller asked.
"Wait — what? Say that again!" Swan replied.
"Whether Trump is impotent," Miller said. "For the longest time, I've been trying to match —"
"What are you, Howard Stern? What is this, like —" Swan broke in. "OK, no. I'm not speculating!"
"I wasn't asking you to speculate," Miller said. "I was wondering if you had any reporting."
"I certainly don't have any reporting on that," Swan said.
Harp wrote a series of affectionate letters to Trump in 2023 while working on his campaign, telling him he was "all that matters" to her, according to the Washington Examiner.
Haberman said on Democracy Now in August that Harp left the notes in Trump's private quarters, which alarmed the Secret Service.
"It's always good when you have something on paper," Swan said of the documents behind that reporting. "It makes it harder to deny that something happened."
"So then what do you think is happening with Natalie?" Miller asked, saying he found the relationship stranger than "that other, more prurient thing."
"I think it's the story of a young woman who is completely devoted and obsessed with —" Swan said, before Miller interrupted again.
Harp, 35, is an executive assistant to Trump who became known during the 2024 campaign as the "human printer" for carrying a portable printer to hand him positive news, CBS News reported. The aide drew fresh attention last month after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said at a rally that Trump would rather "build his ballroom and travel with Natalie" than do his job, the outlet reported.
Miller also asked whether Swan had reported on Harp's account of her own health history.
"I haven't got any reporting to contradict her version of it," Swan said.
"This could be Howard Stern. Why did you say that negatively?" Miller asked, returning to Swan's earlier remark.
"Do you think I've been overly emotional at times in this podcast?" Swan asked a few minutes later.
"I probably got a little on my high horse," Swan said.
"I got a little defensive and emotional," Swan said, telling Miller the two were "totally good."
