A lesser-known brother of Donald Trump’s favored White House aide has reportedly relocated to Central America, where he has been openly critical of the President.
Preston Harp — brother of Natalie Harp, often described as Trump’s “human printer” because she provides him with printed articles and social media posts he wants to read — is not the only relative said to be distant from the President’s close aide.
According to relatives, the death of Natalie’s father in 2020 caused a painful rupture within the Harp family, leaving her especially close to her mother, Jill, while relationships with other family members deteriorated.
Preston and other relatives have now spoken exclusively to the Daily Mail, as Natalie Harp’s unusually close access to Trump faces renewed public attention.
Harp, 34, first drew widespread notice for her bond with the 80-year-old President in 2019, when she credited him with helping save her life.
At the time, she was in her 20s and recovering from stage II bone cancer, publicly saying Trump’s signing of the federal Right to Try Act had allowed her to pursue an experimental treatment she believed was lifesaving.
Trump later elevated her profile further by giving her a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in August 2020.
What was not publicly known when she appeared on that stage, however, was that her family was still grappling with a devastating tragedy from just a month earlier — one that relatives say left lasting fractures.
President Trump’s executive assistant, Natalie Harp, has a secret raging socialist brother who lives in a country ruled with an iron fist by one of the president’s fiercest critics
Preston Harp works in Nicaragua with an activist who was designated a domestic terror suspect by the Reagan administration
Natalie and Preston Harp, pictured with their parents Robert and Jill, haven’t spoken since their father died in 2020
Living in two worlds
In the exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Harp’s estranged brother Preston, 38, slammed Trump as a ‘national embarrassment’, and said that his sister’s relationship with the president is ‘very unhealthy’.
‘She’s just like his fan club,’ Preston said from his new adoptive homeland of Nicaragua.
Preston moved to the Central American country in 2023 to live under the authoritarian rule of Daniel Ortega, who has called Trump ‘mentally deranged’ for his handling of the war in Iran.
Now a long-haired hippie, Preston has been working alongside S Brian Willson, an 85-year-old activist who was designated a domestic terror suspect by the Reagan administration.
Preston couldn’t live more differently to his younger sister.
As she dons designer dresses and heels to hop on and off Air Force One closely behind the leader of the free world, Preston lives in T-shirts and baseball caps in a $60-a-month room in a suburb of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.
He suffered an incapacitating injury earlier this year, tripping over a bike tire at night and breaking his kneecap. He is still slowly recovering and says he is thankful for Nicaragua’s socialized, free healthcare that has paid for his treatment.
Preston has been working with Willson, editing his memoirs and other anti-imperialist writings. The octogenarian lost both legs when he lay down in front of a Navy munitions train destined for anti-communist rebels in Central America in 1987.
Harp, who is dubbed Trump’s ‘human printer’, often dictates Trump’s social media posts and posts them in real-time
The Harp siblings haven’t spoken since they fell out over their father’s death. Dr Robert Harp, died on July 17, 2020
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Harp’s brother Preston called Trump a ‘national embarrassment’ and blasted his sister’s relationship with the president as ‘very unhealthy’
Preston had no idea his sister had started working for Trump until a friend pointed him to a Daily Mail article about a ‘glamorous new assistant’ in March 2023.
‘He’s like, “Hey, did you see the Daily Mail?” And he’s like, “No, look at this,” and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, my sister’s in the Daily Mail, and working for Trump!”,’ he said.
‘And I had no idea,’ he added. ‘And so it just kind of caused some cognitive dissonance.
‘I don’t understand why my sister, or anyone could want to work for Trump.’
Natalie Harp did not respond to requests for comment on this article but friends say she fears for her brother’s mental health. Preston concedes he had a hard time in 2015 when he received psychiatric treatment following a car accident but says he has no ongoing mental health problems.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not comment on the complicated family dynamics but called Harp one of the ‘most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team’.
Family tragedy and a bitter division
Harp and her brother were close growing up in California.
Preston, who shared exclusive photos of his family with the Daily Mail, fondly recalls playing games in which his younger sister would pretend her dollhouse was burning and he’d come to her rescue in a fire engine.
They were home-schooled by their parents with their mother taking the lead in their education using Christian textbooks.
Growing up, Preston said Natalie was the dutiful child, following her mom’s instructions. He said ‘Natalie just kind of followed my mom.’
Harp shared a rare personal post to her social media channels following her father’s death, posting a tribute to Dr Harp that was written by her mom
Preston said his father, Robert, was more supportive of his free spirit, describing him as more ‘chill’ and tolerant than his mother
Preston described his mother as ‘extremely conservative’ and ‘deeply religious’.
‘The focus for my mom’s kind of Christianity just really seemed about preaching about hellfire,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘She’d even force me to throw away my Pokémon cards because she saw them as demonic.’
But while he was rebellious, Preston described his sister as a dutiful child, following her mom’s instructions to the letter.
‘Natalie just kind of followed my mom,’ he said.
By contrast, Preston earned his mother’s scorn for listening to rock music, skateboarding and reading library books by authors such as Carl Sagan and Jack Kerouac.
Preston said his father, Robert, was more supportive of his free spirit. Robert had studied to be a pastor and later became a professor at Biola University, an evangelical Christian school in La Mirada, California.
Preston briefly studied at Biola himself but said he was kicked out because of his perceived lack of faith and later graduated with a degree in philosophy from nearby Chapman University.
At first, he maintained contact with his family, he said, but had an increasingly difficult time communicating with his sister.
He said when he called the house, his mother wouldn’t let him talk to Harp without her listening in on the call.
‘I’d have to talk to her while my mom could hear what we’re talking about because she thought I was a bad influence,’ Preston said.
Jill Harp, now 64, did not respond to our request for comment.
As Preston grew more distant from his mother and sister, he maintained a close bond with his father. They would go out to dinner and enjoyed hikes together.
Then Covid arrived.
Natalie’s mother, Jill, was described by her son as being ‘extremely conservative’ and ‘deeply religious’
Natalie Harp, pictured trailing Trump at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach in 2023, left her hosting job at the conservative One America Network to take a plum role in the former president’s communications team
Harp, pictured at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington DC in 2019, first garnered Trump’s attention after she credited a law signed by him for helping her beat bone cancer
Preston said he has no desire to re-connect with his sister, pictured before boarding Marine One in April, or his mother and has no plans even to return to the United States
Preston claims he hasn’t spoke to his sister or mom since his father’s death. He says the family disagreed on how to react to the tragedy
Robert Harp spent the last six months of his life locked down with his wife and grown daughter at the family home in Irvine, California during the pandemic.
On the morning of July 17, 2020, Harp called her brother to report a family emergency.
Preston rushed over from his new home in nearby Santa Ana to see his father’s body being carried off on a stretcher.
An Orange County coroner ruled his death a suicide.
Already divided by religion, the family disagreed on how to react to the tragedy.
‘My mom and sister wanted to say that he died in his sleep. I just can’t keep that kind of a secret,’ said Preston.
He then shared news of his father’s suicide with Harp’s extended family – sparking a sibling rift which has not been resolved.
Other family members contacted by the Daily Mail admitted there was a family fallout over Robert’s suicide and the fact that there was no funeral, just a private cremation.
Harp’s paternal grandmother Dolores ‘Dee Dee’ Harp, 88, who was widowed in 2024, said of her granddaughter: ‘She doesn’t call me. I’ve accepted that’s the way it is.’
Carolyn Creutzer, a cousin, said Harp has blocked her on social media.
Preston Harp now lives in Nicaragua where he has been actively volunteering for another American ex-pat – S. Brian Willson, the famed Vietnam veteran turned peace activist who the Reagan administration branded a ‘domestic terrorist’
Preston has been working with Willson (pictured), who lost both legs when he laid down in front of a Navy munitions train destined for anti-communist rebels in Central America in 1987
A month after her father’s death, Harp delivered that speech at the RNC in North Carolina.
She and her mother left California weeks later and moved together into an 18th floor apartment in West Palm Beach, Florida, just three miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private members club, where they built inroads with the President at the center of the MAGA universe.
Harp the took an anchor job with the conservative One America News Network, before joining Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2022.
After his re-election in November 2024, it was announced that she would be working in his administration.
For his part, Preston has worked various jobs as a musician and grocery clerk.
He traveled to Nicaragua for the first time in 2022, describing it as ‘the first I’d felt at peace since my dad died’.
He said he feels at home in the Central American nation and finds added meaning in life by working for Willson, who has described Preston as a ‘gift from the heavens’.
The 34-year-old, pictured with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles last December, is often seen by the Trump’s side
Harp landed her gig the Trump White House after sharing her health story on conservative media and then being given a speaking role at the Republican National Convention in August 2020
‘Shortly after Gringo Preston Harp arrived in Nicaragua from the United States, he discovered that my writings and essays were articulating values similar to his,’ Willson told the Daily Mail.
‘He asked if he could volunteer with me. Working solo while living in Nicaragua in my mid-eighties, I was thrilled to have an assistant who was an excellent writer, editor, and an anti-imperialist thinker/activist like me,’ he added.
Preston says he has no desire to re-connect with his sister or their mother, and has no plans even to return to the United States.
‘It’s hard to believe that’s my sister and my mom,’ he said. ‘I can’t connect with that vibe, so I’m just going to let it be.’
