Breaking: Trump DOJ to Deploy Army of 1,000 ‘Election Observers’ Ahead of Midterms

Maggie Haberman comes up with viral nickname for Natalie Harp, Trump DOJ to send 1,000 election observers to polling places, sailors adrift for 4 days without power

U.S. President Donald Trump's executive assistant Natalie Harp disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

Good evening. I’m John Byrne, in for British Chris.

The White House communications office is clearly in panic mode after a sitting senator pointed out Trump’s strange relationship with a young staffer. That same staffer, 35 year-old Natalie Harp, has given a new nickname from the New York Times’ White House reporter after she was revealed as one of the few staffers Trump brought along with him while leaving other senior officials on a decoy jet that could have potentially been shot down. Trump’s Justice Department is preparing to send an army of a thousand “election observers” ahead of the midterms, even as it keeps losing court cases over its push for state voter rolls. And a Navy ship sat dead in the South China Sea for four days with no power, no AC and no working toilets in what is merely the latest sign of a military stretched thin by a war no one planned well or asked for.

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‘Touched a Nerve’: White House Explodes at Ossoff for Naming Young Female Staffer at Trump’s Side

Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia went after Trump over the weekend in a fiery speech, saying the president seems more interested in building his ballroom and “traveling with Natalie [Harp]” than actually solving America’s problems. It clearly stung the president, whose team has spent the entirety of Monday erupting at Ossoff.

The response from the White House noticeably wasn’t a denial. Communications Director Stephen Cheung fired off a post loaded with bizarre sexual insults, a deliberately misspelled version of Ossoff’s name and a line telling the senator to ask himself why he’s a “miserable person who hates this country.”

The White House’s over-the-top response didn’t go unnoticed. Podcaster Tommy Vietor said it looked like Ossoff had “touched a nerve” by naming Harp, who’s been referred to as the “human printer” for her habit of printing out flattering articles from right-wing news outlets to hand to the president. Capitol Hill staffer Aaron Fritschner agreed with Vietor and wrote that Ossoff seemed to have found one of Trump’s most sensitive buttons. Commentator Zaid Jilani said the administration’s response to Ossoff sounded like the hit dog was hollering.

Michael Linden, a former Biden administration advisor, said he almost missed the days when a communications director would get fired for posting something like what Cheung wrote. Former congressional staffer Michael Brodek pointed out that Cheung’s tirade omitted any mention of Ossoff’s chief allegation. Activist Hunter Dunn noted how Cheung quickly pivoted to insults the second Ossoff joked about a young female aide who never leaves Trump’s side.

Nobody in the White House press shop denied any of it. They just got angry someone had the guts to say it out loud.

NYT Reporter’s Nickname for Natalie Harp Goes Viral

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman just gave Natalie Harp a new nickname, and it’s already spreading across the internet like wildfire. Harp became a household name after she was one of just three staffers Trump brought with him during his secretive transfer off Air Force One in Turkey last month, while leaving top cabinet officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary on board the decoy jet, which could have been shot down.

Haberman told MSNOW that Harp made the cut because she was Trump’s “binkie,” which is what parents of infants sometimes call a pacifier. Harp isn’t an expert in classified logistics or national security. She’s his security blanket who keeps his ego inflated.

Harp is more than 40 years younger than Trump. Her own estranged brother has called her relationship with the president “unhealthy.” Even Trump’s own Secret Service detail has reportedly had concerns in the past about bizarre notes she’s left expressing her undying admiration for the president.

Harp doesn’t just print flattering news articles. She also has the keys to Trump’s Truth Social account and writes posts that he dictates. A documentary showed her taking on that role while Trump’s team watched Kamala Harris’s 2024 convention speech. And Harp was the aide who was ultimately responsible for posting the racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

So the country has an 80-year-old president who relies on a 34-year-old aide the Times says functions as a comfort object, who has access to his social media, and who was trusted with his secret plane switch. And when a senator points that out, the White House response is a slur-laden name and a question about his soul.

Trump’s DOJ Readies Army of ‘Election Observers’ Less Than 3 Months Before Midterms

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Office, announced Monday that the DOJ plans to deploy roughly 1,000 election monitors across the country for the November midterms. She added the department could take its fight for state voter rolls all the way to the Supreme Court, despite failing to win a single case in the lower courts.

So far, DOJ is winless in all 23 district court cases pertaining to state voter rolls. Judges have all so far declined to greenlight the DOJ’s attempts to force states to hand over sensitive voter registration data, including driver’s license and Social Security numbers. Dhillon is signaling the Supreme Court might be next anyway.

She also claimed, without naming a single state or offering a shred of evidence, that hundreds of thousands of dead people and tens of thousands of noncitizens are on the rolls in states that have cooperated with the DOJ’s requests. According to Dhillon, two-thirds of states are refusing to hand over their voter data. She also accused unnamed state election officials of knowingly leaving non-citizens registered, calling it a federal crime. She again never once named any alleged instance of that crime occurring.

A thousand federal monitors showing up at polling places across the country isn’t about assuaging voters’ concerns about election fairness. This is simply an intimidation ploy aimed at keeping voters home.

Sailors Stranded at Sea for 4 Days with No Working Toilets or AC

The U.S.S. Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, lost power in the South China Sea on in late July after what the Navy said was an engineering failure with its generators. The ship sat dead in the water for four days. Sailors had no galley service, no working toilets and no air conditioning. Another ship had to help feed the crew until the Benfold was towed on July 28th, with power restored two days later.

This comes as the George Washington strike group heads to the Middle East to relieve the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, where conditions are so dire that multiple sailors reportedly tried to jump overboard after more than 200 days without a port call. The roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines have complained of no working toilets, poor plumbing issues, not receiving mail promptly and other persistent issues affecting quality of life on board the vessel.

Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a retired Marine, said the administration never planned for this war and clearly had no exit strategy in place. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the reporting “completely misrepresented,” while families of sailors aboard the carrier called Hegseth’s dismissiveness of their loves ones a betrayal of his duty.

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