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President Trump last year gave cash gifts of $45,000 to aides Natalie Harp, Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris and a $20,000 gift to Walt Nauta, public financial disclosures show.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement on Wednesday that Mr. Trump “has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector.”
In the financial disclosures, the money is labeled as “cash gift for holidays.”
The $45,000 gift is in addition to their $150,000 a year, taxpayer-funded salaries. Federal employees are barred from receiving outside compensation for their services as an officer of the government. But the White House argues that the money is classified as a gift, not compensation, and is unrelated to the aides’ official duties.
“The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals’ official government duties, and, therefore, are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards,” Ingle said.
Additionally, while there are government rules against federal employees accepting gifts from subordinates or officials who make less than themselves, subordinates are not barred from receiving gifts from superiors.
The gifts were first reported by The Washington Post.
Harp, 35, is a special assistant and executive assistant to the president, and she is frequently seen at Mr. Trump’s side. Attention has turned to Harp after Sen. Jon Ossoff said at a rally last month that Mr. Trump would rather “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” than be president.
Harp started working at the White House as a presidential appointee when Mr. Trump took office in January 2025. She had been known as the “human printer” during the 2024 presidential campaign, as the New York Times reported at the time, because she carried a portable printer to quickly get positive news to the president. Mr. Trump often prefers to read physical copies of social media posts and news stories, rather than off screens.
In their book “Regime Change,” New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported that the president remarked of Harp to staffers, “All of you will go off and make money. She’ll never leave me.”
Martin, 31, is a special assistant to the president and a communications adviser in the press office. Martin is a key member of the communications department who posts many of the curated videos of Mr. Trump to social media. She served as a press assistant at the White House during the first Trump administration and then continued to work for Mr. Trump in Palm Beach following his first term.
Harris, 26, serves as deputy director of Oval Office Operations. She previously worked in the White House Office of Administration, and then as Receptionist of the United States in the final months of Mr. Trump’s first term. Harris continued to work as Mr. Trump’s executive assistant when he was out of office. Mr. Trump earlier this year appointed her to the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency responsible for reviewing Washington-based construction projects such as the White House Ballroom and the 250-foot triumphal arch.
Nauta, 43, is director of Oval Office Operations and is one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal aides in his administration. A Navy Veteran, Nauta was Mr. Trump’s “body man” and valet in the first administration, continuing to work for him in Florida between terms.
