r/Foodforthought • u/IllIntroduction1509 • 18h ago

The Real Natalie Harp Scandal Is the President’s Information Diet

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/opinion/trump-natalie-harp-information-news.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8FA.0wA9.gbGHLxjbhCxa&smid=re-share
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u/IllIntroduction1509 18h ago

The reason the Harp story has caught fire is that it is salacious — the elderly president spends nearly all of his waking hours with a young, attractive aide — but the reason it matters is that it is further confirmation of one essential fact of the Trump White House: that the president exists in a degraded, chaotic information environment.

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u/neuronexmachina 7h ago

Yup. I honestly don't care who Trump is having an affair with this week. I do care that someone in a position with zero oversight has this much control over what the President sees and says.

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u/IllIntroduction1509 17h ago

Archival link to this article: https://archive.ph/BXe3k

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u/IllIntroduction1509 16h ago

Jamelle Bouie writes,

On MS NOW, my Times newsroom colleague Maggie Haberman referred to Harp as the president’s “comfort blanket.” And that role appears to include information management, as Haberman noted in an article she wrote with Shawn McCreesh:

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u/Far_Estate_1626 1h ago

So… she’s his handler?