Knowing how to play this game
By 
If you have spent any time on social media, you have seen the massive protesting-too-much MAGA reaction to Jon Ossoff making a reference to attached Trump aide-de-camp Natalie Harp:
Some battleground candidates are going viral for shooting from the hip. Jon Ossoff is doing it from a carefully controlled script.
Ossoff drew attention Sunday for calling out a little-known aide to President Donald Trump by first name on a Midtown Atlanta rally stage. It was part of a larger prepared speech that hammered Trump over the war in Iran — and part of a larger strategy to raise his profile in a critical Senate race, all while some national Democrats openly question whether he will mount a 2028 presidential run.
“He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” Ossoff said, referencing Natalie Harp, the president’s executive assistant. The comment, though just a brief remark in a 30-minute speech, drew over 5 million views on X and swift backlash from Republicans — including the president himself, who shot back Monday calling Ossoff a “Pee Wee Herman lookalike.”
It was just the latest time footage from an Ossoff campaign speech went viral.
It’s worth noting the larger point Ossoff is making here, even if you accept the MAGA interpretation of his remark:
the allegation isnt 'hes fucking his secretary' its that he cares more about fucking his secretary than his actual job
[image or embed]— finrodsauronverynsfwprivatefolderdonotlook (@yungdreyfusard.bsky.social) August 17, 2026 at 6:39 PM
And not thay the point holds even if (my personal guess) they just have a co-dependent but non-sexual relationship in which Harp is Trump’s most important gatekeeper and gets higher priority than the vice president or any cabinet member when it comes to getting off the decoy plane. As Paul observed earlier, one reason the second term of the Trump administration has been an abject disaster is that he has zero interest in doing any part of the job that doesn’t involve renovation and home decoration. Ossoff was able to make this point in a way that went viral, and that this baited the entire MAGA talking head infrastructure into implicitly accusing Trump of having yet another affair is just a bonus.
I have no idea how the 2028 primaries will work out, and they’re the graveyard of candidates who look good on paper. But he’s a proven great electoral performer in a state Trump carried twice, he’s progressive but not Squad, he was an early critic of the war on Gaza, and he knows how to get earned media — one to watch at the very least.