How three words from Jon Ossoff prompted an epic MAGA crash-out.
He’s temperamental and emotional in a way that supposedly disqualifies women from serving in powerful political or corporate roles. He lashes out at critics, opponents, the media, even his own staff.
Were it not so
frightening, it would be Veep-level hysterical that the man atop the world’s
most powerful government and military lacks the impulse control of a high
schooler.
But the questions now swirling around Trump’s personal
assistant Natalie Harp — and especially the way Sen. Jon Ossoff unleashed a
media firestorm this week by invoking her name — offer a long overdue lesson
for Democrats on how to successfully bait Trump and his MAGA cohorts for
maximum effect.
Harp strikes a chord
Let’s start by unpacking what Ossoff actually said last
Sunday, which was not nearly as salacious as the ensuing MAGA meltdown would
have you believe.
“While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he
fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through
his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks,” said Ossoff, of Trump. “See, he
doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with
Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of
Qatar.”
But the kicker was these three words: “travel with Natalie.”
Ossoff’s statement would have delivered the same critique of
Trump as an entitled, lazy lout had he omitted any mention of Harp. But he
dropped her name — and only her first name, plus the first-person plural
“their” for emphasis — to pair them and suggest a degree of interpersonal
intimacy.
Ossoff’s gambit worked perfectly. Americans immediately wanted to learn who Natalie Harp is.
Answer: a “platinum blonde geyser of
positivity, there to buck him up when the going gets rough,” as the New York
Times described the
young aide who serves as Trump’s personal, 24/7 “security blanket.”
The White House and conservative pundits lost their marbles,
crying foul about attacks on the young staffer and veiled implications of her
and Trump having an affair.
More amusing and hypocritical is how conservative apologists
rushed to Harp’s defense, depicting her as a child immune to attention or
attacks, and the victim of
sexist “dehumanization.” (In fact, Harp is 35 — an adult more than twice the
age of the Central Park 5 Black youths when Trump called for their execution
before they were even tried for a crime that, it turned out, they never
committed.)
In 2023, Harp twice dodged presidential
security protocols and wary Trump staffers to get close to Trump — once, by
securing a maid’s room at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, and then by
sneaking into an SUV trunk in Trump’s motorcade. She behaves like a rock band
groupie, not a presidential adviser.
Harp has also skirted security
clearance checks, a fact that suggests Trump is willing to sacrifice
national security to maintain his emotional “security blanket.” That’s the term
Ossoff used to describe Harp when, instead of apologizing or backtracking as
weak-willed Democrats often do when facing backlash, he doubled down on
his Trump attack during a Monday television interview with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki.
Ossoff shows the way
But enough about poor Natalie — back to Ossoff.The senator and his speechwriters clearly understand that
powerful words do more than assert or indict: They create imagery.
Ossoff painted a picture of Trump flying in comfortable,
Middle Eastern-supplied luxury, oblivious to the problems around him, his every
need and indulgence fulfilled like some oleaginous sultan. That image contrasts
sharply with his MAGA cult supporters’ rally flags depicting Trump as a
bandana-wearing Rambo delivering rough justice.
Depicting Trump as Ossoff skillfully did generated paroxysms
from Republican politicians and conservative talking heads.
The right-wing media narrative is lousy with depictions of
liberals and Democrats living better than — and therefore condescending to —
their lessors: those humble, hardworking, heartland Americans. Ossoff delivered
this same appraisal of Trump in fewer words than a median-length William
Faulkner sentence. The senator’s quip was a Thomas Nast cartoon sketched with
four sentences.
And therein lies the key lesson of this episode: Trump can
be weakened by policy attacks, especially on the economy and his foolhardy war
with Iran. But politicians in the new media age who want to gain traction — no
less run for the White House — need to talk less in stentorian policy tones,
like a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, and more like Jimmy Kimmel or
Chelsea Handler.
The Georgia senator whom many believe to be a frontrunner
for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination understands that Democrats need
more than “affordability” policy messages to win in 2026 and beyond. They need
to depict Trump as feeble, selfish, and tone-deaf.
By inserting Harp into the national political discourse,
Ossoff inverted the national narrative about which side is politically soft and
entitled. The 2028 presidential election is more than two years away, but this
week Ossoff put his party and the punditry on notice that he will be a skilled
and formidable contender.
A flustered Trump dismissed Ossoff as “Pee Wee Herman.” Weak
tea.
Trump’s snide derogatories have lost their oomph. More to
the point, like all bullies his feckless response proves he can throw a punch
but can’t take one.
And the senator’s invocation of “Natalie” — leaving out her
last name to imply some special intimacy between Harp and Trump — was the shiny
frame that drew millions of eyes to the Trumpian imagery Ossoff so deftly
painted.
Troll bridge to 2028
Narcissists like Donald Trump cannot abide criticism, and no
critique is more effective with insecure narcissists than mockery. Making fun
of Trump as a lazy, unpatriotic, and ineffective president cuts to his bone.
Trump commits ample policy and political errors without provocation, but he is
far more prone to blunder when under attack and on the defensive. And so are
his allies.
Trump’s supporters warn that if Democrats recapture the
House this fall, they will immediately impeach Trump for a third time. His
self-dealing corruption, which makes Watergate look like a parking ticket,
alone warrants his removal. But to paraphrase a time-worn maxim, if you try to
kill a wannabe king you better succeed. Even if Democrats flip the Senate, they
will not have enough Republican support to convict Trump on any House
impeachment article.
The better way to impeach Trump is to rattle his confidence
and destroy his heavily-curated image as a tough and competent patriot. This
week, Jon Ossoff separated himself from the pack by providing liberals and
Democrats a perfect formula for how to do so.
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