Donald Trump gave cash gifts of $45,000 each to three White House aides and a further $20,000 to another senior employee, financial disclosures released by the administration show.
Natalie Harp, Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris each listed the payment as a “cash gift for holidays”. Walt Nauta, the director of Oval Office operations, reported receiving $20,000.
Harp, Martin and Harris each earn $150,000 a year in their White House roles, while Nauta’s salary is $175,000. The gifts were made last year and were disclosed in the aides’ annual financial filings.
A White House spokesperson, Davis Ingle, said Mr Trump had “a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector”.
He added: “The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals’ official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.”
The payments have nevertheless prompted questions from government ethics specialists because federal law restricts outside compensation for public servants. Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, said the gifts appeared to breach a statute prohibiting the supplementation of federal employees’ salaries.
“He’s clearly trying to make it easier for them financially to work in government service at the White House,” Mr Painter told The Washington Post. “You can’t do that.”
Other former ethics officials said the legal position was not clear from the disclosures alone, noting that the White House maintains the money was personal and unrelated to the recipients’ official duties. However, they warned that payments of this size could create the perception that aides were indebted to the president.
Ms Harp, a special assistant and executive assistant to Mr Trump, is frequently seen alongside him and is known for carrying a portable printer used to provide him with hard copies of news reports and social media posts.
Ms Martin is a communications adviser who has worked with Mr Trump since his first administration, while Ms Harris is deputy director of Oval Office operations. Mr Nauta previously served as Mr Trump’s valet and was among those charged in the classified documents case involving the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate; the charges were dismissed in 2024.
