Yes, it is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall soon flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of men! Through it, God will spread His word; a spring of pure truth shall flow from it; like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance and become a cause of light hithertofore unknown to shine amongst men!
Herr Gutenberg was correct, of course. The Bible is the most popular book in the world — so much so that great-books lists must acknowledge its dominance with an asterisk when leaving it off. What Gutenberg couldn’t have known was that someday, an American who styled himself like Old World royalty would employ a young woman (a Liberty grad, the Protestant conservative variant keeping Hillsdale grads from hegemony) to carry around a battery-operated printing press with which to furnish Trump with the latest memes, balderdash, and news. Technology can’t help but have weird wrinkles.
Marc A. Caputo writes:
Harp, 32, occupies a unique role in the history of presidential campaigns: aide who travels with a portable printer (plus paper and rechargeable batteries in a large bag) whose job is to feed Trump a steady stream of information on 8.5×11″ pieces of paper. That way, the 77-year-old doesn’t have to strain his eyes on a smartphone to read all the news that’s fit to print in MAGAville.
Harp’s nickname on the campaign — “the human printer” — underplays her importance. That’s because in Trump’s orbit, proximity to the principal is power. And with her portable printer at the ready, Harp is constantly around Trump — whether she’s sitting close to the defense table in the Manhattan courthouse on weekdays or riding the links with Trump on Sundays in Florida.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Harp gatekeeps much of what Trump sees on social media and reads in the news.
I wish I had an assistant to print off the greatest hits of the day. What Trump has is, functionally, an algirlrithm sifting through the algorithms that comprise our every day, with social-media companies feeding us what they believe will keep us on their platforms for the greatest length of time. Must be nice. Caputo’s larger point — that trusting a 32-year-old with gatekeeping the information that the man currently polling to be president in 2025 sees is concerning if the gatekeeper’s judgment is suspect — is spot on.
Natalie Harp is a flatterer, something obvious to anyone who’s watched even a minute of her past show on OANN. Now at Trump’s side on the golf course, in the car, and in court, Harp has taken the role of a nursemaid, spoon-feeding an elder only the pudding flavors he prefers. Unlike Trump’s Twitter days, he need not ever come across disagreeable information that isn’t read to him by a judge or opposing counsel.
At best, the Harp printing service is diversionary — idle entertainment for a man who has little respite from the legal hounding. At worst, it’s the sort of thing that allows a man very close to becoming the next chief executive to contrive artificial facts from fiction that would tempt him to do and say things far beyond the bounds of the presidency.
The printing press was built to reproduce the Truth. Now it spits out TruthSocial — scattering ignorance, though not as Gutenberg intended that aspiration to be understood.