Trump Gave $45,000 Each as Gifts to 3 of His Aides, Disclosures Show

President Donald Trump gave cash gifts to several aides, according to newly filed financial disclosures.

Trump gave $45,000 each as a “cash gift for the holidays” to Natalie Harp, Margo Martin, and Chamberlain Harris, according to ethics disclosures released by the White House in early September.

Harp is Trump’s executive assistant. Martin is a special assistant to the president. Harris is an executive assistant to Trump and deputy director of Oval Office Operations. They all earn $150,000 a year for their work, according to the White House’s annual report on staffing salaries filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

He also gave $20,000 to the director of Oval Office Operations, Walt Nauta, whose salary is $175,000 a year.

“The President has 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,” a White House spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

“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.”

Richard W. Painter, a University of Minnesota Law School professor who was the White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, wrote on the social media platform X, “Supplementation of government salaries is prohibited under a criminal statute [18 U.S. Code § 209].”

The pertinent law says that employees who receive a salary for serving as an officer or employee of the Executive Branch, or any independent federal agency, may not receive “any salary, or any contribution to or supplementation of salary, as compensation for his services.”

It also bars people and entities from supplementing the salary.

“A White House staffer is not your Fifth Avenue doorman,” Painter wrote. “No tipping, and no holiday gifts from a current boss or former employer. The salary is what it is. Full stop.”

Ethics officials wrote in the filings that the aides were in compliance “with applicable laws and regulations.”

Harp is often seen accompanying Trump around Washington and on trips outside the city. Her duties include printing out articles and social media posts with a portable printer she carries.

Martin, who also goes with Trump on certain trips, has been working for the president since his first term, including stints as a spokeswoman for Trump while he was out of office, and as a communications staffer with his political action committee. Harris has also worked for Trump since his first term.

Nauta was Trump’s valet for a time and was charged with him for allegedly obstructing an FBI probe into unlawful possession of classified documents. A federal court threw out the charges in 2024, shortly before Trump took office for the second time.