Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to Natalie Harp and two other aides, public records show

ByBernd Debusmann Jr White House reporter. 9 September 2026, 18: 19 BST.

Key points

• While his longtime aide and director of Oval Office Operations, Walt Nauta, received $22, 000, two staff members obtained the same amount as Harp.
• President Barack Obama, for example, offered former press secretary Robert Gibbs a framed necktie that he had once borrowed ahead of the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
• In June 2023, he was indicted alongside Trump on charges that he mishandled national security documents.
• While the final recipient, 26-year-old Chamberlain Harris, officially serves as the president's executive assistant.
• The third recipient, Margo Martin, is well known for documenting Trump's activities on social media.

President Donald Trump offered sizable cash gifts to four White House staffers, including $45, 000 (£33, 000) to his close aide Natalie Harp, financial disclosures issued by his administration show.

No other White House staffer has declared any gifts from the president, the documents show. Federal employees are prohibited from receiving outside compensation for their duties.

For context, the White House has described the gifts as personal in nature, unrelated to the staffers' work and legal under US law.

In an official note provided to the BBC, a White House official remarked that the president "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".

"The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals' official government duties, and are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards, " the official continued.

Notably, the cash gifts, totalling $157, 000, are marked as a "cash gift for the holidays" for Nauta, Harp and two other authorities: communications advisor Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris, a White House aide who serves as Trump's executive assistant.

For context, the White House did not answer a separate query from the BBC on why the other 91 listed staff members – including other top aides and First Lady Melania Trump's top advisors – did not receive gifts.

In practice, the four recipients of the cash gifts are among those widely considered as close to the US president.

Harp, 35, is among Trump's longest-serving and most loyal aides. She is often trusted with typing out his frequent Truth Social posts, among other responsibilities.

Last month, she was thrust into the national spotlight after she was named as one of a small number of individuals who stayed with Trump as he secretly swapped planes leaving Turkey last month.

Nauta, a US Navy veteran, has additionally long been at Trump's side. He served as a White House military valet to the president in his first term, and afterwards joined him as an assistant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left office.

In June 2023, he was indicted alongside Trump on charges that he mishandled national security documents. The case was ultimately dismissed.

Notably, the third recipient, Margo Martin, is well known for documenting Trump's activities on social media.

While the final recipient, 26-year-old Chamberlain Harris, officially serves as the president's executive assistant. In February, she was additionally appointed to the US Commission of Fine Arts which oversees the construction of the White House ballroom and other Trump-directed projects in Washington.

Cassandra Burke Roberston, a law professor and director of the Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, informed the BBC that "it's not an easy call" to say whether the cash gifts were ethical or not.

"If it were compensation, it's not allowed, " she remarked. "Of course, that's where the administration's argument comes in, that it's a social gift done out of friendship. Not compensation."

Additionally, Robertson remarked that even if legal, the gifts – along with recent controversies involving prediction markets and cryptocurrencies – could raise eyebrows among the public.

"It does add to a generalised perception of really rampant conflicts of interest, " she remarked.

There are no other known instances of a serving US president giving cash gifts to staffers at the White House. Plenty of presidents, even so, have given souvenirs or personal mementos to staff.

For now, trump gave $45, 000 cash gifts to Natalie Harp and two other aides, remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.