Trump Gave $45,000 Cash Gifts to Three White House Aides, Disclosures Show

Financial disclosure forms released by the White House last week show President Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts each to three aides: executive assistant Natalie Harp, communications adviser Margo Martin, and deputy Oval Office operations director Chamberlain Harris, plus $20,000 to Oval Office operations director Walt Nauta. All four earn government salaries between $150,000 and $175,000 a year. The Washington Post first reported the disclosures on September 8; the Associated Press confirmed the figures the next day.

Federal employees are generally barred from accepting compensation beyond their government salary, and gifts of this scale from a sitting president to his own staff raise questions about whether such payments effectively supplement pay outside normal channels. A White House official, speaking anonymously, said Trump "has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit" and that the payments are unrelated to the official duties of the aides.

No formal ethics complaint or investigation has been publicly reported; the disclosures were filed and released through the standard annual process.