Natalie Harp has agency. She is doing bad things. And she is also pathetic

Well, folks, we have a discourse going.

Following Sen. Jon Ossoff's reference to Donald Trump wanting to "travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar," Team Trump was outraged, in a way that managed to call more attention to how weird the whole situation is. Natalie Harp, Trump's 35-year-old executive assistant, we learned, once got into a screaming fight with other Trump staffers over not getting a seat in the motorcade, then jumped into the trunk of an SUV to ride to a Trump court appearance. She reportedly spent a summer living in a locker room at Trump's Bedminster golf course when the maid's room she initially was provided was not close enough to Trump for her taste. She has written him some letters worthy of a cult member.

And also she is the "human printer" who brings Trump a steady stream of flattering articles, posts, and memes. She has the keys to his Truth Social account. She is an important gatekeeper to his time and attention. Natalie Harp is one of the people keeping Donald Trump untethered by reality.

So naturally a debate has emerged: Is she pathetic, or is she evil? And I'm here to say, once again … can't it be both?

Natalie Harp is a 35-year-old adult with agency. She believes evil things. She is an unrepentant spreader of disinformation. She is a force within an administration committing horrific abuses against individual people, groups of people, the functioning of American democracy, and the future of the planet.

Natalie Harp is also pathetic. Many men in Trump's orbit have debased themselves, whether by reversing long-held beliefs or wearing shoes too big for them because Trump gave them the shoes. But sleeping in a locker room or getting into a screaming match before jumping into the trunk of an SUV is a lot. Letters groveling "I am also sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland" and "You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more"? That's creepy, in a "this person is unwell" way.

But someone can be unwell and still have the agency to be doing bad things in the world for which they are responsible. Harp was raised, her estranged brother has said, to believe things like that "people weren’t bad because they had slaves." She was raised to revere presidents (at least Republican ones).

She's an adult now, though, and she's making choices. They may be choices rooted in the poor values of her upbringing. Her understanding of appropriate femininity doubtless shapes her willingness to sacrifice her dignity and comfort for Trump. We can observe that she both seems unwell and is definitely a force for evil in the world. There's no contradiction there.