By calling out Natalie Harp, Jon Ossoff did what no Democrat has been able to do — put Trump on his heels

The past week, President Donald Trump has had to respond to and tamp down stories about Natalie Harp, his super-eager executive assistant who calls herself the “human printer.”

On Thursday evening, Trump biographer Michael Wolff released letters to The Daily Beast wherein Harp gushed to the president, “You are all that matters to me” and “no one knows or cares about me more.” The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, perhaps the premier chronicler of Trump, has said Harp is “not beloved” by her colleagues in the White House.

Her estranged brother Preston burst out laughing on CNN the past week when he learned that his sister reportedly jumped into the trunk of a Trump motorcade SUV when there wasn’t room for her to sit during a trip to court in 2023. Then there was the story on MS NOW that Harp worked at the White House without a security clearance. On Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump made her first public appearance in a month amid reports she has refused to be anywhere Harp is, leading to her having a lower public profile of late.

“I heard you missed me,” she joked in her opening remark before adding, “Here I am.”

And all of this snowballed thanks to Sen. Jon Ossoff, the freshman Democrat from Georgia, who has become public enemy number one of the White House and plenty of other conservatives — merely for invoking Harp. And in doing so, he might have honed a skill Trump uses to maximum effect: occupying everyone’s attention and getting his opponents on the back foot.

Last week, Ossoff held a rally in Atlanta. These events have become something of an exhibition match for the 39-year-old senator who often clips videos from his re-election events that become catnip for liberals on social media.

The videos have generated talk not just about whether Ossoff will win by double digits this November, but whether he should seek the presidency in 2028.

This time, Ossoff rattled off an attack regarding the report that Trump left Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the White House press pool on one plane as he faced a potentially deadly Iranian missile attack while he and Harp went on another plane.

“He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do his job,” he said. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

The line earned Ossoff applause in Georgia, but it earned him consternation from plenty of Republicans. Scott Jennings, the conservative CNN pundit who is reportedly lobbying to replace departing Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary, called Ossoff a “garbage human.”

And the response from the White House was even more vicious. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung called Ossoff “Jon J***off” and a “cuck,” and spokesman Davis Ingle called him “cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama.” Trump for his part calls Ossoff “Pee-Wee Herman.”

Even some Democrats, like former Obama adviser David Axelrod, chafed at the attack.

But to borrow a phrase regularly used in the South, a hit dog will holler. Ossoff’s attacks would not have caused such a stir if he did not know it would make the White House lash out at him.

Unlike some other Democrats, Ossoff, who represents a state that voted for Trump twice, has made opposing the GOP standard bearer a cornerstone of his re-election campaign.

His record is not as liberal as his MS NOW-watching fans might want. He voted for the Laken Riley Act, which would allow for immigration authorities to detain non-citizens arrested for or chanrged with specific crimes. He also voted to confirm Marco Rubio to be secretary of State and for Trump’s crypto legislation.

Still, he has bet that Trump’s sinking approval rating due to the poor economy and the war in Iran will juice up turnout in the midterm election against his ultra-MAGA challenger Rep. Mike Collins. Even when Trump won Georgia, suburban voters in the Atlanta metropolitan area trended leftward.

He likely hopes to dominate his re-election campaign and shake off the image he has as an upstart amateur who narrowly lost a special election congressional race in 2017. And of course, as much as he says he is not thinking about the White House, he is a senator from a swing state. And South Carolina, home of Democrats’ first primary contest, is just a quick drive away.

Ossoff has lapped up the attention and expect him to post a massive fundraising number. Whether due to his age, the voters in his state or something else, he might be the only Democrat who has figured out how to turn Trump’s best weapon–media attention–against him.