Saturday Night Live opened its latest season by taking aim at President Donald Trump’s unusually close bond with his fiercely loyal aide, Natalie Harp.
The long-running comedy series launched its 52nd season Saturday night with a cold open that compared Harp’s devotion to Trump to the unsettling dynamic at the center of the recent horror hit Obsession.
James Austin Johnson reprised his familiar Trump impression, appearing alongside Ramy Youssef, who played New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Their exchange was soon disrupted by newcomer Ashley Padilla, portraying the 35-year-old Harp.
“Hi, Mr. President. Hi,” Padilla’s wide-eyed Harp said as she entered, visibly drenched and disheveled from the rain.
Trump looked surprised to see her. “Natalie, I didn’t realize you were in New York,” he said.
“Oh, I wasn’t. I ran here from D.C. — Weapons-style,” Harp replied, stretching her arms stiffly behind her in a reference to the horror film before moving toward Trump.
She then explained her sudden arrival by singing, “I came in case you needed anything because, um, ‘Baby boy, you’ve been on my mind.’”
Turning to Mamdani, an amused Trump declared, “Isn’t she great? She’s like the girl from Obsession, but blonde.”
Saturday Night Live began its 52nd season with a parody of Trump aide Natalie Harp’s intense loyalty to the president, comparing her behavior to the horror movie Obsession
Harp has drawn public scrutiny and online jokes over her unwavering support for Trump, whom she has also credited with saving her life
The opening sketch featured James Austin Johnson as Trump and Ramy Youssef as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with newcomer Ashley Padilla appearing as Harp
Harp responded with a series of nervous giggles, recreating the eerie frown worn by Nikki, the possessed character played by Inde Navarrette in the film.
“I’m kidding. I’m completely normal. I really am normal,” she insisted through her laughter before greeting Mamdani. “Anyway, nice to meet you, Mayor Mamdani.”
After shaking the mayor’s hand, Harp leaned in and delivered a darker warning in a whisper: “If you hurt him, I will end you.”
The sketch ended by poking fun at Trump’s apparent fascination with the New York Democrat. Mamdani offered to keep Trump company in exchange for the president following him back on Instagram.
Mamdani first tried a much bigger request, asking Trump for $21 billion to fund a housing project in Queens.
When Trump rejected that proposal, Mamdani lowered the stakes. “What if I follow you back on Instagram?” he asked.
“It’s a done deal,” Johnson’s Trump immediately replied.
Harp has repeatedly faced scrutiny and ridicule for her exceptionally devoted public persona around Trump. She has also said the president played a role in saving her life.
During a May 2023 golf trip to Scotland, Harp ran behind the President’s golf cart because no other ones were available. She later wrote him a letter to apologize for embarrassing him while trying to keep up. PIctured: Harp, US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump in June 2026
The sketch saw Harp shake the NYC mayor’s hand before inching closer and whispering in his ear, ‘If you hurt him, I will end you’
The SNL sketch garnered mixed reactions on social media, with some applauding Padilla’s welcome to the show while others were less-impressed.
‘SNL turned Trump and Natalie Harp’s relationship into a full-blown horror movie,’ one user wrote.
‘Ashley Padilla made her debut as Harp in the Season 52 premiere, portraying Trump’s assistant as fiercely protective and hilariously obsessed with him. At one point, she warns Mamdani: “If you hurt him, I will end you,”‘ they continued.
‘My take: SNL really said, “What if we turned this into Fatal Attraction?” Ashley Padilla understood the assignment because the whole thing was SO unsettling and ridiculous at the same time. That entrance alone was enough to make the cold open memorable.’
Another user said: ‘Padilla was so good as Natalie that Trump probably can’t decide whether to demand SNL be canceled or to try to hire Ashley too.’
A third, however, criticised the show’s return and wrote: ‘I’m usually an SNL defender and find his Trump skits very funny but this cold open was rough.’
‘Somehow SNL couldn’t figure out a way to ridicule the fattest target of the year – the Massachusetts lesbian COVID bar – instead, choosing to open with another boring, insipid Trump bit. C’mon, guys,’ another comment read.
Harp has remained glued to Trump’s side to the point that it raised concerns within the Secret Service and the President’s inner circle.
The aide also told the president in one of many personal letters from 2023: ‘You are all that matters to me.’ She also called him her ‘Guardian and Protector in this Life’
Trump told people that same year that Harp was the only person on his team who cared about him: ‘All of you will go off and make money… she’ll never leave me’
During his May 2023 golf trip to Scotland, Harp ran behind the President’s golf cart because no other ones were available.
She later wrote him a letter to apologize for embarrassing him while trying to keep up.
‘I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland,’ she wrote in a letter to Trump published by the Daily Mail in February last year.
The aide also told the president in one of many personal letters from 2023: ‘You are all that matters to me.’
She also called him her ‘Guardian and Protector in this Life,’ according to letters reviewed by the New York Times.
Harp went on to admit that she starved herself and forgot to sleep while working for Trump, saying: ‘I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).’
Her letter concludes: ‘With all my heart, Natalie.’
Trump told people that same year that Harp was the only person on his team who cared about him: ‘All of you will go off and make money … she’ll never leave me.’
Trump’s relationship with Harp is back in the limelight after he chose to save her over his own cabinet secretaries after an Iranian assassination threat following the Nato summit in Turkey last month
It was revealed on Wednesday that Harp was gifted $45,000, along with two other female aides.
Harp’s determination to remain by Trump’s side was also on display in October 2023, when she rode in the trunk of an SUV after being told there was no room for her in the motorcade taking him to a New York court appearance.
After staffers told her there was no room in the vehicle, Harp became livid and began screaming at them, insisting that Trump had personally asked her to accompany him, according to CNN.
The incident was one example of how Harp had ‘irked’ those closest to the president.
One advisor said that Trump ‘likes the attention and the fact that she is 100 percent committed and loyal’.
‘She doesn’t question, doesn’t second guess,’ the source said.
Harp also spent the summer of 2023 sleeping in the women’s locker room at Trump’s Bedminster golf club so she could remain close to him, according to journalist Michael Wolff.
She had initially secured a maid’s room but moved into the locker room because it was closer to the main house and allowed her to respond more quickly whenever Trump called.
Harp’s estranged brother, Preston, first spoke to the Daily Mail back in June where he described his sister’s relationship with Trump as ‘very unhealthy’ and called the President a ‘national embarrassment’
During the campaign, Melania Trump once stumbled upon Harp late at night inside Trump’s private quarters at Mar-a-Lago, an area typically off-limits to anyone outside the family, according to journalist Alex Isenstadt.
Harp was reportedly delivering documents to Trump that she did not want to wait until morning to hand over.
Trump’s relationship with Harp is back in the limelight after he chose to save her over his own cabinet secretaries after an Iranian assassination threat following the Nato summit in Turkey last month.
Harp was among a handful of aides including Trump’s former caddy Dan Scavino who switched planes with him on the tarmac in Ankara. Israeli intelligence had warned of an impending Iranian attack on Air Force One.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were left on the plane with dozens of journalists.
Harp’s estranged brother, Preston, first spoke to the Daily Mail back in June where he described his sister’s relationship with Trump as ‘very unhealthy’ and called the President a ‘national embarrassment.’
Preston, a self-described communist who lives in Nicaragua, recently told CNN that when Harp was a teenager she also wrote letters to president George Bush during the height of the Iraq war.
The Daily Mail reached out to the White House for comment.