Washington: Personal letters from Natalie Harp to her boss Donald Trump have been revealed in full for the first time, shedding light on a relationship between the US president and one of his closest aides that has become the subject of intense scrutiny.

Two letters, written by Harp during or immediately after a trip to the United Kingdom in 2023 – when Trump was out of office – reveal an aide deeply concerned about having upset or offended Trump in some way, and desperate to foster an intimate relationship with him.

The lengthy letters were published by author Michael Wolff and US news site The Daily Beast, to which Wolff is a regular contributor. Wolff said on a podcast he released the letters now because they showed a relationship “that should not exist in a professional setting”.

In one, Harp asks for Trump’s forgiveness after apparently upsetting him during a golfing holiday to Scotland. “I was alone in the van outside Customs without my passport, I panicked, and I should have just called Secret Service instead of you,” she wrote.

“I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland … If there is anything else I have done to cause you trouble, please forgive me.

“I want things to always be right between us … I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”

That letter was signed: “With all my heart, Natalie.”

In a subsequent letter to Trump, Harp said the UK trip gave her a chance to learn about herself and unplug. “I didn’t have to be ‘Human Printer’,” she said, a reference to her job of printing off news and complimentary articles for Trump to read.

“With so much thinking time, I confess it did have a slightly negative effect at times, that I know you picked up on, but the end result, I believe, will be worth it.

“I had no idea how rapidly I was approaching burnout, and starting to envoy those whose only ‘job’ seems to be to talk with you, and look pretty. I want that job!!!

“So many times, I’m just trying to stay afloat with all that’s coming in for you, I look like a hunchback who didn’t have time to freshen up (at least you know what I should look like)!

“I miss the days when you used to call, during my Talkshow days, and we’d talk about everything and nothing. I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn’t have to talk about work all the time!!”

Harp went on to tell Trump she needed to reunite her “past self” with her current person to become the best version of herself and “make you proud”.

“Please, when I fail, will you tell me?” she wrote. “You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.

“To modify a classic, ‘I could not have parted with you, to anyone less worthy’ - And, I will add, it is I who is unworthy.” That letter was signed: “Always, Natalie.”

Excerpts of the letters had previously been published by The New York Times. Wolff described the content as “lovesick”, “submissive” and “weird”, and said while he did not believe Harp was Trump’s girlfriend, they were evidence of an inappropriate relationship between the president and a workplace subordinate.

“The relationship here is not a relationship that should exist in a professional setting,” he said on The Daily Beast’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast. “This ain’t normal.”

Harp, 35, joined Trump’s staff while he was out of office and worked on his 2024 election campaign. Since his return to the Oval Office, she has served as executive assistant to the president, including drafting and posting his remarks on Truth Social – his preferred method of communication.

Contacted for comment, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told this masthead Harp was one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on the president’s team.

“The Fake News’s continued attacks on President Trump and his Administration prove exactly why trust in media is at historic lows,” he said. “The media should focus on reporting real news and stop trying to smear dedicated public servants.”

Harp was thrust into the spotlight last weekend after Democratic senator and potential presidential candidate Jon Ossoff told a rally that Trump would rather travel on his plane “with Natalie” than do his job.

That was a reference to Harp being one of a handful of aides selected by Trump to take a secret flight out of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey, rather than travel on “Air Force One”, which had been deemed a security risk amid threats from Iran.

Multiple senior aides and cabinet secretaries were left to travel on the Boeing 747 – as well as the travelling press pack, who were not told of the security risk or that Trump was not on board.

On Wednesday, MS-NOW revealed Harp had worked in the White House and Trump’s inner circle for more than a year without receiving a security clearance. MS-NOW reported that Trump intervened amid rising concerns from security officials and White House lawyers, and that she now has a clearance.

David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who was chief-of-staff to Barack Obama as president, said if it was true that “the person closest to [Trump] and his thinking on a daily basis has no security clearance and refuses to submit to the process of getting it, it’s a deadly serious issue”.

Axelrod was previously critical of Ossoff’s decision to raise Harp at his rally, saying it “seemed gratuitous and unnecessary”. Trump’s allies accused Ossoff of trafficking in innuendo and smearing a public servant with the implication she was having a sexual relationship with her boss.

Trump, when asked during the week for a response to Ossoff’s remarks, said that Ossoff looked like Pee-wee Herman, the childish comedy character created by Paul Reubens.