MEXICO CITY — Natalie Harp’s brother had a busy morning Friday on Facebook.
In post after post, Preston Harp made clear the profound political differences that separate him from his estranged sister, one of President Donald Trump’s closest personal aides and the subject of intense scrutiny this week in Washington.
Photos Harp posted that he said depicted his home in Masaya, a city in western Nicaragua, also appeared to identify him as an ardent supporter of the Sandinistas, a Marxist-influenced revolutionary movement that has dominated Nicaraguan politics for decades under President Daniel Ortega.
What appeared to be a Sandinista military hat lay beside a suitcase. A flag of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) — which led an armed guerrilla resistance that overthrew the dictatorship of U.S.-backed Anastasio Somoza in 1979 — hung from his wall. Displayed on a shelf were several books by and about the Argentine-born revolutionary leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara, as well as a certificate issued by a Sandinista-affiliated group.
“Preston Harp,” read the caption of another photo, “Un gringo Sandinista.”
Preston Harp did not respond Friday to several requests for comment. Neither did the White House, and neither did Natalie Harp.
The Washington Post confirmed Preston Harp’s residency in Nicaragua and the authenticity of his Facebook account with two Nicaraguan friends whose photos he posted.
“He’s a big fan” of the Sandinistas, said one friend, Francisco Larios. “He likes the government.”
Both of the Harp siblings were in the news this week, after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) invoked Natalie Harp’s name while criticizing the president. Ossoff’s comments brought new focus to a presidential aide who credits Trump with saving her life during a bout with cancer.
She lavishes attention on Trump and provides him with printouts of favorable media stories, according to a book published this year by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
“You are all that matters to me,” she told him in a letter, according to the book.
In an interview earlier this week with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Preston Harp called his sister’s relationship with the president “sad.”
“That’s obsession,” he said. “That’s like an unhealthy obsession with someone.”
He urged Natalie to renounce her politics.
“I hope you change and that you wake up and you realize that everybody on this Earth is part of a human family, and no country is better than any other country,” he said.
Washington has long showcased political rifts between family members.
Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, has repeatedly assailed her uncle’s politics and policies.
Numerous Kennedy family members have also denounced Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him unfit to serve as the health and human services secretary.
Vociferous Trump critic George Conway famously disagreed with his wife, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
Ronald Reagan’s son, Ron Reagan, became an outspoken liberal and critic of conservative politics.
But few divides have been quite as wide as the one that seems to separate Natalie and Preston Harp.
She is part of an administration that has sought to reassert the U.S. military’s presence in Latin America, overseeing a military campaign that has destroyed scores of suspected drug boats and killed hundreds of alleged traffickers, and led to the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Trump has openly backed right-wing governments and political candidates, dismissing concerns of human rights abuses in El Salvador and coming to the financial rescue of Argentine President Javier Milei.
In recent weeks, the long-running antagonism between the Sandinista regime and the United States, which has accused Ortega of dismantling democratic institutions and stifling dissent, has intensified.
After Ortega announced in July that his country would no longer hold elections — alleging that U.S.-supported groups would use it to try to “seize” power — Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Nicaraguan president a coward.
“Daniel Ortega’s statement that under his family dictatorship, Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare his true authoritarian nature,” Rubio said.
Preston Harp, who posted an image of the Venezuelan flag and said he “supports” Maduro, seems to disagree.
“¡Viva el Frente Sandinista!” he wrote Thursday. “¡Patria libre o morir!” Long live the Sandinista Front! A free fatherland or death!
Preston Harp’s social media accounts were first reported by the Spanish newspaper El País.
In another image, posted beside old family photos of the Harps, Preston Harp has on his chest a tattoo of a revolutionary guerrilla hoisting a rifle against a background of a red star, a long-standing symbol of communism.
In another post, he condemned what he called “American imperialism all over the world.”
And in a series of short videos, he interviewed a man he described as a Sandinista guerrilla. A Sandinista flag hung in the background, while the man criticized the United States.
“We’ve been told all over the world that the United States is the best, but no,” the man said. “The United States needs to look after its own country, and look after its own people — and stop looking at other peoples.”
The post She’s a Trump acolyte. He’s a ‘gringo Sandinista.’ Meet the Harps. appeared first on Washington Post.
