Natalie Harp and Walt Nauta (right), the most essential people in Trump’s government.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump’s hottest club isn’t Mar-a-Lago, Bedminster, or even the Rose Garden. It’s the catering truck with a secret entrance the president used to sneak off Air Force One last month. This club has everything: a Human Printer, a Diet Coke valet, and a guy whose job it is to tell soldiers they look fat
After a NATO summit in Turkey on July 8, the Secret Service determined there was a credible Iranian threat to Air Force One. A U.S. official <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-was-secretly-transferred-to-military-jet-amid-threats-to-air-force-one-26900d0c” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>toldTheWall Street Journal that “Israel briefed the Trump administration on the intelligence, which included a threat to use shoulder-to-air missiles.”
So an elaborate ruse was deployed to protect the president: Trump and a select few would board Air Force One, then sneak out the back into a catering truck, which would ferry them to a nearby Air Force C-32A. Everyone else, including many Trump officials and the White House press corps, would fly on Air Force One as a decoy
Who was deemed so essential that they were saved from flying on the targeted plane? Here’s who made the Catering Truck Club members list, according to the Washington Post:
- Natalie Harp, Trump’s unnervingly ardent executive assistant, who runs his Truth Social account and was nicknamed the “Human Printer” because she runs around with a portable printer to give the president hard copies of fawning articles and memes
- Walt Nauta, who worked his way up from bringing Trump drinks whenever he hit his beloved Diet Coke button to being his director of Oval Office operations
- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/us/politics/dan-scavino-trump-white-house-personnel.html” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Dan Scavino, who helped Trump craft his social-media strategy during his 2016 campaign and is now the White House deputy chief of staff
- Pete Hegseth, the secretary of Defense
- A few “lower-profile aides”
The White House did not provide a full list of people leaving Turkey with the president. But it seems these people were deemed less essential and remained on Air Force One:
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
- White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller
- Communications director Steven Cheung
- Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Needham
- All the journalists traveling with the president
It’s unclear how they decided who went on which plane. Rubio knew about the Iranian threat, according to the New York Times.But it’s unknown if any other White House officials were aware that they were in danger or that Trump wasn’t on the plane with them. While Hegseth was the lone Cabinet member accompanying the president, that may not mean the administration felt we’d need him to monitor our warfighters’ testosterone levels in the event of an Iran war escalation. He was seen entering the C-32A using external stairs, so he might have been onboard to avoid raising suspicions about the smaller jet flying with Air Force One.
We don’t know if Trump personally selected his traveling companions, but prioritizing his most loyal aides and the people who operate his social-media accounts does fit Trump’s M.O
In his first comments about the subterfuge on Tuesday, Trump suggested he was just following a plan cooked up by the Secret Service:
“It’s really just up to Secret Service,” he said. “I just follow what they like to do. So I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, a different plane, for safety.”
Trump also asserted he was in more danger than the people he left on Air Force One
“I think, actually, the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” Trump said. “Because that would be the plane that, I think, that they would be more likely to go for.”
That doesn’t make any sense. The whole point of the catering-truck escape was to make the Iranians target Air Force One, rather than the plane Trump was actually on. But it does sound like the kind of excuse you would make up if most of your team were furious about being unwittingly used as a decoy
- Trump Caught Giving Himself AI-Generated Makeover
- Trump Thinks This Year’s ‘No. 1’ Movie Was … Melania?
- Trump’s Arch Will Photobomb Every View of D.C.
See All
Trump Catering-Truck VIPs: Diet Coke Valet, Human Printer
