Melania is not accompanying her husband on this occasion (Image: Getty Images)
President Donald Trump has landed in China for his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, accompanied by a somewhat unfamiliar face.
The three-day visit marks the first time a U.S. president has met with China’s leader since Trump’s previous trip in 2017. Trump is hoping to secure several political agreements with Xi Jinping, including greater purchases of American food products and aircraft.
Melania is not accompanying her husband on this occasion, despite having joined him during that 2017 visit. He is travelling with a number of senior officials, including son Eric Trump, daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several high-profile CEOs, amongst them Tim Cook and Elon Musk.
Lara recently posted a photograph featuring some of the delegation members, which included a woman many might not immediately recognise. However, people are likely far more acquainted with her work than they realise.
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Who is the blonde woman in China with Trump?
The blonde woman pictured appears to be Natalie Harp, Trump’s executive assistant. According to the Wall Street Journal, she is the driving force behind Trump’s posts on Truth Social.
Trump is well known for his late-night activity on his social media platform, with some sessions generating more than 50 posts.
During a flurry on Monday, his account produced 17 posts within a single hour, including numerous reshares from his own supporters hailing him the “greatest president ever.”
One post displayed a banner on a vehicle that read: “Trump is without a doubt the greatest president we have ever known.”
Another featured an AI-generated image of Trump overlaid with gold cursive text declaring: “The Greatest of All Time.”
In total, the account published 55 messages between 10:14 p.m. and 1:12 a.m.
It appears Trump may not be operating this account single-handedly. According to the WSJ, Harp is sometimes the one actually posting the content.
Harp, 35, has held the role of executive assistant to the president since January 2025 (Image: Getty Images)
What were the ‘racist’ Truth Social posts?
Sources close to the matter told the publication that Harp prints out stacks of drafted social media posts for the president to review and sign off on. She then reportedly logs into his account and publishes batches of the Trump-approved material at a time.
This allegedly includes the racist images of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michele Obama as apes posted and deleted on Feb. 5 and the AI-image of Trump appearing as Jesus Christ posted and deleted on April 12.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the WSJ in a statement that the “internal deliberations of how the process works” aren’t discussed with him.
Cheung said in a statement: “Truth Social has never been hotter, and it’s because President Trump offers his unfiltered and direct thoughts to the American people, without the biased media taking him out of context,” adding, “We don’t discuss internal deliberations of how the process works, but no other social-media tool has been more effective than Truth.”
The blonde woman pictured appears to be Natalie Harp, Trump’s executive assistant (Image: @LaraLeaTrump/X)
Who is Natalie Harp?
Harp, 35, has held the role of executive assistant to the president since January 2025. The former television presenter joined Trump’s communications team in 2022, and has since become a familiar face during the president’s daily golf trips.
She has earned the nickname “human printer” owing to her habit of carrying a wireless printer to provide Trump with news articles wherever he travels, according to Alex Isenstadt’s book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power.
The California-born bone cancer survivor took to the stage in support of Trump at the 2020 Republican National Convention.