Washingtonian’s October issue features our 2026 list of the area’s 300 Most Powerful Women. In the print article, which comes out today, we ran photos of four of the women: Natalie Harp, Special and Executive Assistant to the President; Janeese Lewis George, the presumptive next mayor of DC; Jodie McLean, the CEO of Edens; and Myechia Minter-Jordan, the CEO of AARP. We emailed each woman a short list of questions about their lives and careers, and used part of their answers for the captions that appear with each photo. But we didn’t have room for all of their answers, so we are sharing their complete and unedited responses online.
Below are the answers that were emailed back to us by White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who, he wrote, had had the answers sent to him by Harp. Natalie Harp is said to be one of the people who helps with the president’s social media, and the answers below—such as the capitalization and tone—may remind you of Trump’s Truth Social posts. The answers were emailed to an editor here on August 18, in the middle of a whirlwind of “Who Is Natalie Harp?” press coverage after the 35-year-old assistant was one of the few aides who took a secret flight out of Turkey with Trump, and after she was mentioned in a speech by Democratic Senator Jon Osoff that went viral. Below, she talks about her faith and working “at the speed of TRUMP!”
1. What in your background best prepared you for the demanding position you’re in?
Working hard and fast comes naturally to me. I finished college in three years, earned my MBA (4.0), and was blessed with parents who showed me, by example, that “work” is not a place you go to 8 to 5, but something you do until everyone, and everything, you are responsible for is taken care of, to the best of your ability. Living by this maxim means being “on call” for the Administration, Congress, and the Citizens we serve, around the clock, but our Country deserves no less.
2. You’re obviously in a prominent and high-stress job with (we assume) long hours and travel. Is there something you try to make time for every day to de-stress or keep yourself on an even keel (whether it’s a particular kind of exercise, a check-in with friends, or something else)?
Since the epicenter of “power” is not Washington, D.C., but Heaven, every morning I listen to a few chapters of the Bible on audiobook, and pray for God’s wisdom and strength in whatever situations may arise.
3. What is the hardest part of your job?
Washington, D.C., does not work at the speed of “TRUMP!” We have only four years to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and that sense of urgency is absent from too many, while the Radical Left tries to stop, or slow down, the momentum the President is building for the Golden Age of America. Ultimately, however, the President continues to do as much as possible, as quickly as possible, delivering Historic Results for our Country, and the World.
4. Who are one or two women whom you admire or who have been a role model or mentor to you?
Success is determined not just by what is achieved, but under what circumstances. Fighting cancer while serving as Chief of Staff for the Most Consequential President in History, Susie Wiles is an example to all of what can be accomplished when one has the strength and resolve to do so. At 17-years-old, Joni Eareckson Tada survived a diving accident and, with quadriplegia, has worked tirelessly, almost six decades since, empowering millions of people through her Worldwide Ministry, Joni and Friends. As President Trump has said, and lived, “You can’t prove your merit on quiet waters.” Perseverance and resilience are only developed in challenging situations and, if we learn to do so, we can work at a tempo and magnitude that propels us forward, and inspires others to never give up.
5. You’ve reached a level of professional success and achievement at a relatively young age—and young women are often not taken as seriously as thirty-something men. Do you feel your age has been an obstacle or an asset to your success and professional life?
Age is just a number. Years count how long you have been doing something, not necessarily how good you are at it. Throughout his career, the President has never compartmentalized people into their demographics, but rather has the rare gift of seeing something in people that perhaps they don’t see in themselves, male or female, young or old, and then bringing those gifts into focus. Take a look at his Cabinet. The diversity in skill, talent, and backgrounds, creates a dynamic unit, which works cohesively together to secure unprecedented WINS for the American People. In the end, History will remember us not for our gender, years lived, or at what age we reached what the World sees as “success” but, by what we did, and that, will outlive us!
