President Donald Trump gave three White House aides $45,000 each as holiday cash gifts, according to annual financial disclosures filed by the officials. The payments to Natalie Harp, Chamberlain Harris and Margo Martin totaled $135,000 and were separate from their government salaries.
Aides
The three officials each reported receiving a $45,000 payment from Trump, describing it in their financial filings as a “cash gift for the holidays.” Their disclosures identified Trump as the source of the money and were submitted under federal requirements for senior government officials.
The amount is notable because each $45,000 gift represents 30% of the aides’ reported annual White House salary of $150,000. The filings also listed different locations connected to the payments, with Harris identifying Washington, DC, and Harp and Martin listing Palm Beach, Florida.
Harp
Natalie Harp, a special assistant and executive assistant to Trump, has become a familiar figure around the president. She is frequently seen preparing and printing articles, social media posts and other material for Trump, a role that has earned her the nickname “the human printer.”
Her close access to the president has made her one of the more visible members of his White House support team. The financial disclosure, however, provides limited information about the circumstances surrounding the holiday payment.
Harris
Chamberlain Harris serves as deputy director of Oval Office operations and an executive assistant to the president. Trump also appointed her to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which reviews architectural and design matters involving Washington.
That appointment has attracted additional attention because the commission is involved in reviewing Trump’s proposed White House ballroom. The project has faced legal and political controversy, while former commissioners and preservation advocates have questioned whether Harris had the qualifications for the position.
Martin
Margo Martin, a communications adviser to Trump, regularly travels with the president and plays a prominent role in documenting his activities. She frequently records and publishes videos featuring Trump, including footage of him dancing on a tarmac in Malaysia and meeting visitors in the Oval Office.
The disclosures do not indicate that the holiday payment was connected to Martin’s communications duties. The White House has maintained that the gifts were personal and unrelated to the officials’ government responsibilities.
White House
A White House spokesperson defended Trump’s holiday gifts, saying the president has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including employees and aides, both in government and during his time in the private sector.
The spokesperson said the payments had nothing to do with the recipients’ official duties and were therefore permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards. The disclosures do not provide further details about how the amounts were determined or why the three aides received identical payments.
The $135,000 total has drawn attention because of the size of the individual gifts compared with the aides’ annual taxpayer-funded salaries. The filings offer a public record of the payments while leaving the broader circumstances behind the gifts largely unexplained.
