George Conway: For Trump, Harp Strikes a Chord

The Bulwark Daily - The Bulwark

In this episode of The Bulwark Daily, host Tim Miller and guest George Conway discuss the recent public appearance of Melania Trump following a wave of controversy surrounding leaked letters from her alleged admirer, Natalie Harp. The

Key takeaways

• The leaked letters from Natalie Harp exhibit extreme devotion and suggest a potentially abusive or manipulative dynamic with Donald Trump.
• Capitalization of terms like 'Guardian,' 'Protector,' and 'Cash Register' may reflect evangelical religious language, hinting at a performative or transactional view of faith.

Main topics

• Leaked letters from Natalie Harp to Donald Trump
• Melania Trump's public appearance and media silence

Notable quotes

"I'm also sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland."

"Thank you for being my guardian, capital G, and protector, capital P, in this life."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a call for sustained political engagement and reflection,

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:12) Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Daily. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Before we get to one of our guests, I've got two more favors. I did a favor earlier this week, and the response was overwhelming. The amount of emails that Katie Britt's chief of staff has gotten about her total absence and abdication of responsibility when it comes to the children that we are keeping in detention centers, even though they're trying to self-deport, it was at least noticed. Unfortunately... Katie Britt hasn't done anything yet. She did go on Fox last night and smear Muslims, but she hasn't done anything to help the people in the detention centers yet. But hopefully that will continue. I heard from some of you that you didn't fully have the names of Fred East and Edgariana and how to spell them. So I'll put them in the show notes. If people did not get a chance to contact Katie Britt's office, please do so over the weekend. My other quick favor is this podcast is going to do great in the algorithm. Okay, the algorithm loves Trump derangement syndrome. The algorithm loves my guest. The algorithm loves it when we talk about Melania having press conferences. We're going to crush, okay? When we talk to Julia Curley about a trans woman being fired, or we talk to David Wallace-Wells about climate apocalypse, the algorithm doesn't love that serious material as much. So if you liked one of those podcasts, my favor for you this weekend is think about a friend who might like it and help. expand our reach. I mean, the Julia Curley podcast just knocked me on my ass. So if you would send that with a friend to a friend who you don't think listens yet, I would consider it a favor. So I appreciate you. And then now you guys, I owe y'all too. So you can ask me for a favor. All right. Today's guest. An old pal, a lawyer. He used to be a Republican. He used to be a candidate for Congress. He's a Bollard contributor and maybe a little bit more soon. We'll be talking about that. It's the great George Conway. Hey, George. Hey, Tim. How are you? I am pretty good. I mean, all things considered. I got my wish. All week I've been saying if the Natalie Harp discourse leads to an impromptu Melania press conference, it will all be worth it for me. And I got my wish. Speaker 2 (2:25) I was always there. I was always there. You just weren't paying attention. I was always at the White House. I'm very, very busy. You know, they tore down the East Wing and now it's a military bunker and I'm in charge of that. Speaker 4 (2:38) Mr. Epstein did not introduce me to my husband. Speaker 2 (2:42) Mr. Epstein? Who is that? Who is that? I do not know a Mr. Epstein. Speaker 4 (2:49) She made her first public appearance in more than a month. yesterday, last time, if you even call it an appearance, was at the World Cup final. She was announcing, it's hard to understand, we'll play it, apparently a scholarship program for young adults in foster care, which is an admirable effort. Partners on the initiative include Fox. So that leaves me a little skeptical. I don't know why. But she came out at the White House, and I just want to play a little bit for you. Speaker 1 (3:17) Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am. Welcome to the White House. A warm welcome to our distinguished guests today. Mr. President, my father, Mr. Knauss. Education is the one asset that can never be taken away. It is the foundation upon which confidence is built, opportunity is created, and the future is invented. Speaker 4 (3:51) Hmm. Her English is not great. I know that it's important that immigrants learn English in this White House. It's an important part of the Stephen Miller, but foundation, inventant, I don't unclear what's happening there. Her Speaker 2 (4:03) English is better than your Slovenian, so I don't know what you're talking about. Speaker 4 (4:09) She might be non-lingual. She's forgotten the Slovenian and not quite learned the English. So we have a non-lingual first lady, possibly. I Speaker 3 (4:16) mean, you know, I don't... criticize her for. I'm not going to criticize her for helping kids get education, I guess. But kind of timing. The timing was kind of interesting, don't you think? The Speaker 4 (4:26) timing was interesting. The timing was interesting. And I guess I do have one criticism about the comment. There was the education is the only asset that you can't take away. That's actually not true in a free country. I mean, Donald Trump might think he can take everyone's assets, take anything that he wants from anyone. In a free country, you have an asset. You are actually allowed to keep it no matter what. So it's just a little quibble. Yeah, the timing's interesting coming off the Natalie Hart thing. You sound like some kind Speaker 3 (4:55) of conservative or something. Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:58) Coming off Natalie Hart. We have more letters which we're going to discuss, but we all speculated that Melania was not going to like these stories none too much. I don't know what she's doing the rest of the time. Maybe just... Like, I don't, where is she? It's not like she has, there's a lot of spotted. No one Speaker 3 (5:15) knows where she is. Has she been in New York or has she been in Florida? I don't know. We don't really know. We need a Melania tracker. Do Speaker 1 (5:21) you want to do Speaker 3 (5:21) that Speaker 1 (5:21) job? Speaker 3 (5:22) Not really. Okay. I mean, you know, I'm sure Bulwark has some people out there who would be willing to do that. Yeah, we could find a volunteer. Sacrifice Speaker 4 (5:30) for the country. Yeah. All right. So that's Melania. She's back. Speaker 4 (5:37) still working on English, and she's concerned about Donald's behavior. I think with all her free time, she could improve it. I mean, it's been 10 years that she's been the first lady. The letters from Natalie Harp that might have led to this press conference keep getting weirder and weirder. The Daily Beast has some of the long-form love notes. We've seen some of the short-form in the Swan Haberman book. I'm going to read from a couple of points. I'm trying to decide which parts to do first. The running is the funniest one, so we'll start there. Make it dramatic. Several videos show Ms. Harp sprinting across great distances to keep up with Mr. Trump's golf cart as it putters around the course in Scotland. So we have those videos. Simultaneously to that, the letter says this. I'm also sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland. Speaker 4 (6:31) It's like it's bore on the floor is what this is. Oh, I got to see the video. We need the video. Please leak the video. Speaker 2 (6:39) Some Speaker 4 (6:40) of the weirder parts, though, George. Boy, this is Natalie. We could be out on the course with no machines and even forget what time it was. I didn't have to be a human printer. I could take time to enjoy good conversation and still get all my work done at the end of the day. In fact, I even had time to take long morning and evening walks to enjoy each sunrise and sunset, though I did forget to eat and sleep. With so much thinking time, I confess it did have a slightly negative effect at times that I know you picked up on, that the end results, I believe, will be worth it. We go on. 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. They say I could not have parted with you to anyone less worthy, and I will add, it is I who is unworthy. Speaker 3 (7:30) It's quite amazing. It is just a peon of worship. And there's a bit of kind of like a hint of an abusive relationship there, right? It just feels like... You know, he trashes on her and then she does her best to throw herself back at him. I did not serve you well enough, master. And did you notice, was there some interesting capitalization in that letter or was it another letter that I saw? Speaker 4 (8:00) Yeah, this letter, the human printer was capitalized. Sunset was capitalized. And then we get down to the end of this letter. I was saving this, but since you mentioned the capitalization, this is when the capitalization gets really weird. Thank you for being my guardian, capital G, and protector, capital P, in this life. That's what I wanted to use this card for. When you saw me at the cash register, capital CR, and once again did what you didn't have to and gifted me with mementos of this trip of a lifetime, a coming, capital C, of age, capital A, I will return a better person. Speaker 3 (8:38) It's almost like she worships him as a capital D deity, right? Capital G, Guardian. Speaker 4 (8:46) I was a little worried where you were going with capital D, so I'm happy we landed on deity. That went over my head. So keep going. Capital Speaker 3 (8:53) P, Protector. What was the other one? Capital G, Speaker 4 (8:56) Guardian. Speaker 3 (8:57) Guardian, Protector, and then what was the last? Cash Register is interesting. Cash Speaker 4 (9:02) Register. Speaker 3 (9:03) You know, she went to Liberty University. Speaker 3 (9:07) Someone pointed out to me this morning that cash register has... Speaker 3 (9:14) connotations in the evangelical community. Cash register is a term that is used to describe people who treat the Lord as a kind of deposit institution where you do not good things so that you can get your, you know, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz at the end of the day. But it's usually, I think it's supposed to be critical of that. mode of worship or belief, but she's saying calling him the cash register? Is that the context? It's Speaker 1 (9:48) on Speaker 3 (9:48) me Speaker 4 (9:48) at the cash register. At Speaker 3 (9:49) the Speaker 4 (9:49) cash register. I guess Trump probably just got her like a fucking little doily from the Scotland golf course's pro shop. That's Speaker 2 (10:00) so sweet of him. He Speaker 4 (10:00) got her some Scotland socks maybe or like a golf tee ball that is inscripted with the course name. Speaker 3 (10:09) Mm-hmm. Speaker 4 (10:09) And that was for her a memento of a lifetime, capital L, and a coming of age, capital C. Coming Speaker 3 (10:17) of Speaker 4 (10:17) age. Coming of the Lord Donald Trump. It's weird. I spoke to somebody who covers the White House who was like, it's the type of situation where, you remember the old stories about Trump where he would do the thing like a guy would come into. his office in trump tower they knew he was having an affair and then he'd like call his wife and put him around speakerphone and like say things like cryptically to kind of like embarrass him and scare him to manipulate him yeah humiliate him they're like this is like the situation with now she's writing him these long love notes about how you know he is her son and her moon and for him like he thinks it's funny you know he could have a bunch of friends around and say hey natalie Like, will you go poo in a bowl and then come bring it back to me? And, like, she would do that. You know, like, I think that's the type of situation. Speaker 3 (11:14) Yeah, it is. It does seem. Speaker 3 (11:17) that there is kind of a very, that she's very subjugated in this relationship, that she's very, but the thing that also I'm wondering about is where is this shit coming from? Speaker 4 (11:28) You think she might be a Russian spy? Speaker 3 (11:29) I don't know. I'm asking that question without having an answer. It's a legitimate question, which I pose to you, the guru of boredom. Where the fuck is this? I mean, okay, so she writes these very personal private notes. She doesn't presumably make multiple copies of them and hand them out to the rest of the White House staff. She hands them to him. So where are these copies coming from? Who is giving them to the Daily Beast? Who is quoting them to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan? I've got a working theory on this. Yeah, I'd like to hear that working theory. I mean, you're supposed to be interviewing me and asking me questions, but I've asked a question. It's a podcast. George, it's a conversation. It's a two Speaker 4 (12:17) -way dialogue. It's a weekend pod. I unbuttoned a button. We're getting loose. And here's what I think. The Swan and Hayward book was... very specific in noting that she leaves these for him. I think maybe there's something embarrassing about like handing him the letter. She's a little embarrassed. Maybe she knows somewhere in her subconscious that he's not reading them. Donald Trump doesn't read. They're very long. We'll put the link in the show notes. You can look at the letters. They're very long. There's no way in which he's reading these. I mean, Sam Stein was like, is she talking in code when she says cash register? And I was like, cash register is in paragraph 11. Donald Trump did not make it that far. So if there was a code, he didn't get it. Yeah, I know. All right. What I think is happening is she leaves them around and there are people in the White House that hate her. She's the conduit by which people get things to Trump and Trump gets things out. So she pocket veto shit. You know, she prints out shit that they didn't want them to see. You know, whatever. Like, my guess is Susie hates her. Caroline hates her. You know what I mean? Yeah. Speaker 3 (13:25) Well, they all hate each other. They're all very jealous of who has access to him. So Speaker 4 (13:30) that's what's happening. She leaves them around. One of them knows Trump isn't going to read it, picks it up, takes a picture, or just takes it for themselves. And Speaker 3 (13:39) she's continually trying to fight the staff that's trying to keep her away from the president. Right. Right? I mean, that's why she's running. That's why she's jumping in the trunk of the car. That's why she's jumping in the trunk of the Speaker 2 (13:50) car, running after the golf carts, and so on and so forth. I mean, it was really. Speaker 3 (13:55) It harkens back, and I say this with the disclaimer that I do not believe that these two have carnal wisdom of each other. Speaker 2 (14:03) Because Speaker 3 (14:04) I just find that hard to believe in his current medical condition. I think she serves a completely different function, which we can talk about. But it reminds me of... It reminds me of the Monica Lewinsky episode, where in 98, if you recall, people in the White House basically knew that there was something on with this chick Monica Lewinsky and the president. And they were very suspicious of it. She was always around the Oval at weird