Mark Beckman, a senior advisor to first lady Melania Trump, has hit back at what he described as "gossip" about Donald Trump and his devoted aide Natalie Harp, who it emerged this week had received a $45,000 gift from the president amid growing scrutiny over their relationship.
In an interview posted on X on Wednesday, pro-Trump host Stella Escobedo teed Beckman up by claiming that "the mainstream media won't even touch" the work Melania Trump was doing during her husband's second term.
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Instead, she moaned, "they're endlessly obsessed with garbage tabloid gossip about Natalie Harp, who, by the way, is a loyal, hard-working White House aide to president Trump, a cancer survivor, who POTUS helped get off-label treatment for and saved her life."
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"The liberal media is ridiculous," Beckman said. "They don't know anything about the first lady's personal and private life. They don't even take the time to put us on air to cover these incredible achievements that our first lady has accomplished during this 47th and frankly the 45th presidential administration."
"What they need to do is look in the mirror because they're all attacking this hardworking, very talented, very intelligent person in Natalie Harp," he continued, heaping praise on the nicknamed "human printer."
"And they are obsessed with the gossip with the first family. And I can tell you firsthand that it's time for them to become journalists and stop looking at the gossip," he said.
"Yeah. I mean, it's nonstop," Escobedo replied. "There's nothing wrong with their relationship. Like, get over it."
Beckman agreed, calling the speculation "absolutely ridiculous" and claiming the media "doesn't know" about the private life of the first lady, who has kept a relatively low public profile since her husband returned to office.
"The media doesn't know about the first family's private life. Period," he said. "And what they do, is they harp on these issues of gossip rather than going ahead and covering the substantial achievements of this first lady and frankly, the president also, have conducted during the past year and a half."
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