‘Extremely weird’: White House criticised as it lashes out at reporter over Natalie Harp tweet | indy100

Related video: Melania's top aide reveals their true thoughts about Natalie Harp

Stella Escobedo

Yet again, US president Donald Trump’s White House has expressed how much it dislikes attention being drawn to the Republican’s close aide, Natalie Harp, just weeks after Democratic senator Jon Ossoff mentioned the official during a re-election rally in Georgia.

In remarks which saw him branded a “miserable person who hates this country” by White House communications director Steven Cheung, Ossoff told the crowd Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” of president.

He continued: “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenceless flying plane gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

And now, independent journalist Aaron Rupar has faced the ire of the White House, after he pointed out that 35-year-old Harp joined Trump on the trip to Ireland, attaching a photo of the aide and writing: “Look who made the trip to Ireland! #TravelWithNatalie.”

The Rapid Response 47 account responded to the tweet several hours later and said: “President Trump does, in fact, travel with staff. Aaron, on the other hand, is a sick, deluded freak (in his 40s) who sits behind a keyboard and posts creepy things like this.”

The exchange has since been criticised by other X/Twitter users, with former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeting: “Nothing quite like the President getting triggered by the internet to give you confidence that he’s handling things that matter”:

Juliet Jeske of Decoding Fox News said the tweet is “sort of proof that Rapid Response 47 is under the age of 25”:

Adam James, known online as Epistemic Crisis, commented: “I’m a firm believer at this point that there’s literally no one in the White House who has any sort of media training”:

One user said it was an “extremely weird post”:

And Rupar himself clapped back by tweeting: “My taxpayer dollars, hard at work!”:

Embarrassing.

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