Saturday Night Live opened its new season by poking fun at President Donald Trump’s famously close relationship with devoted aide Natalie Harp.
The late-night comedy show launched its 52nd season on Saturday with a cold open comparing Harp’s loyalty to Trump with the unsettling dynamic depicted in the recent horror hit Obsession.
James Austin Johnson reprised his familiar Trump impression, joined by Ramy Youssef portraying New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Their exchange was soon disrupted by newcomer Ashley Padilla, who played 35-year-old Harp.
Looking disheveled and soaked from the rain, a giddy Harp entered the room and greeted the president. “Hi Mr President. Hi,” she said.
“Natalie, I didn’t realise you were in New York,” Trump replied.
“Oh, I wasn’t. I ran from DC Weapons-style,” Harp answered, holding her arms straight behind her in a reference to the horror film Weapons before moving closer to Trump.
She then sang, “I uh- came in case you needed anything because um, ‘Baby boy you’ve been on my mind.’”
Amused, Trump turned to Mamdani and said, “Isn’t she great. She’s like the girl from Obsession but blonde.”
Saturday Night Live began its 52nd season by satirizing Trump aide Natalie Harp’s close bond with the president and comparing her loyalty to the horror film Obsession
Harp has faced repeated scrutiny and mockery over her intensely devoted attitude toward Trump, whom she has also credited with saving her life
The cold open featured James Austin Johnson’s established Trump impression alongside Ramy Youssef as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, before newcomer Ashley Padilla appeared as 35-year-old Harp
Harp giggled several times before imitating the distinctive frown of Nikki, the possessed lead character played by Inde Navarrette in the movie.
“I’m kidding, I’m totally normal. I totally am normal,” Harp laughed. “Anyways, nice to meet you Mayor Mamdani.”
After shaking the mayor’s hand, Harp edged closer and whispered, “If you hurt him, I will end you.”
The sketch ended with Mamdani offering to follow Trump on Instagram in return for the president staying with him, a joke about Trump’s apparent fondness for the New York Democrat.
“Only if you give us $21 billion for a housing project in Queens,” Mamdani said at first.
When Trump rejected the proposal, Mamdani countered, “What if I follow you back on Instagram?”
“It’s a done deal,” Trump replied.
Harp has attracted waves of scrutiny and online mockery for her unwavering devotion to Trump. She has also said the president saved her life.
During a May 2023 golf trip to Scotland, Harp ran behind the President’s golf cart because no other ones were available. She later wrote him a letter to apologize for embarrassing him while trying to keep up. PIctured: Harp, US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump in June 2026
The sketch saw Harp shake the NYC mayor’s hand before inching closer and whispering in his ear, ‘If you hurt him, I will end you’
The SNL sketch garnered mixed reactions on social media, with some applauding Padilla’s welcome to the show while others were less-impressed.
‘SNL turned Trump and Natalie Harp’s relationship into a full-blown horror movie,’ one user wrote.
‘Ashley Padilla made her debut as Harp in the Season 52 premiere, portraying Trump’s assistant as fiercely protective and hilariously obsessed with him. At one point, she warns Mamdani: “If you hurt him, I will end you,”‘ they continued.
‘My take: SNL really said, “What if we turned this into Fatal Attraction?” Ashley Padilla understood the assignment because the whole thing was SO unsettling and ridiculous at the same time. That entrance alone was enough to make the cold open memorable.’
Another user said: ‘Padilla was so good as Natalie that Trump probably can’t decide whether to demand SNL be canceled or to try to hire Ashley too.’
A third, however, criticised the show’s return and wrote: ‘I’m usually an SNL defender and find his Trump skits very funny but this cold open was rough.’
‘Somehow SNL couldn’t figure out a way to ridicule the fattest target of the year – the Massachusetts lesbian COVID bar – instead, choosing to open with another boring, insipid Trump bit. C’mon, guys,’ another comment read.
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Harp has remained glued to Trump’s side to the point that it raised concerns within the Secret Service and the President’s inner circle.
The aide also told the president in one of many personal letters from 2023: ‘You are all that matters to me.’ She also called him her ‘Guardian and Protector in this Life’
Trump told people that same year that Harp was the only person on his team who cared about him: ‘All of you will go off and make money… she’ll never leave me’
During his May 2023 golf trip to Scotland, Harp ran behind the President’s golf cart because no other ones were available.
She later wrote him a letter to apologize for embarrassing him while trying to keep up.
‘I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland,’ she wrote in a letter to Trump published by Our News Outlet in February last year.
The aide also told the president in one of many personal letters from 2023: ‘You are all that matters to me.’
She also called him her ‘Guardian and Protector in this Life,’ according to letters reviewed by the New York Times.
Harp went on to admit that she starved herself and forgot to sleep while working for Trump, saying: ‘I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).’
Her letter concludes: ‘With all my heart, Natalie.’
Trump told people that same year that Harp was the only person on his team who cared about him: ‘All of you will go off and make money … she’ll never leave me.’
Trump’s relationship with Harp is back in the limelight after he chose to save her over his own cabinet secretaries after an Iranian assassination threat following the Nato summit in Turkey last month
It was revealed on Wednesday that Harp was gifted $45,000, along with two other female aides.
Harp’s determination to remain by Trump’s side was also on display in October 2023, when she rode in the trunk of an SUV after being told there was no room for her in the motorcade taking him to a New York court appearance.
After staffers told her there was no room in the vehicle, Harp became livid and began screaming at them, insisting that Trump had personally asked her to accompany him, according to CNN.
The incident was one example of how Harp had ‘irked’ those closest to the president.
One advisor said that Trump ‘likes the attention and the fact that she is 100 percent committed and loyal’.
‘She doesn’t question, doesn’t second guess,’ the source said.
Harp also spent the summer of 2023 sleeping in the women’s locker room at Trump’s Bedminster golf club so she could remain close to him, according to journalist Michael Wolff.
She had initially secured a maid’s room but moved into the locker room because it was closer to the main house and allowed her to respond more quickly whenever Trump called.
Harp’s estranged brother, Preston, first spoke to Our News Outlet back in June where he described his sister’s relationship with Trump as ‘very unhealthy’ and called the President a ‘national embarrassment’
During the campaign, Melania Trump once stumbled upon Harp late at night inside Trump’s private quarters at Mar-a-Lago, an area typically off-limits to anyone outside the family, according to journalist Alex Isenstadt.
Harp was reportedly delivering documents to Trump that she did not want to wait until morning to hand over.
Trump’s relationship with Harp is back in the limelight after he chose to save her over his own cabinet secretaries after an Iranian assassination threat following the Nato summit in Turkey last month.
Harp was among a handful of aides including Trump’s former caddy Dan Scavino who switched planes with him on the tarmac in Ankara. Israeli intelligence had warned of an impending Iranian attack on Air Force One.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were left on the plane with dozens of journalists.
Harp’s estranged brother, Preston, first spoke to Our News Outlet back in June where he described his sister’s relationship with Trump as ‘very unhealthy’ and called the President a ‘national embarrassment.’
Preston, a self-described communist who lives in Nicaragua, recently told CNN that when Harp was a teenager she also wrote letters to president George Bush during the height of the Iraq war.
Our News Outlet reached out to the White House for comment.
