Ossoff battle with Trump, White House gets nasty
The Hill · C · trust 38/100
Comments: by Julia Manchester - 08/18/26 5:06 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Julia Manchester - 08/18/26 5:06 PM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING The White House and Sen. Jon Ossoff are engaged in an increasingly nasty fight that intensified after the Georgia Democrat, a rising star in his party, invoked President Trump’s longtime aide Natalie Harp in his insults of the commander in chief.
Ossoff ramped up the feud Tuesday during a campaign event with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), another possible Democratic presidential candidate, when he referred to Trump as “the draft dodging crook president who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win.”
That came a day after White House spokesperson Davis Ingle labeled Ossoff a “feminine theater kid” and a “lightweight,” while White House communications director Steven Cheung nicknamed the senator “Jon Jackoff” and “the biggest cuck loser” in a post on social platform X.
That was in reaction to another Ossoff broadside over the Iran war in which the Georgia senator mentioned Harp. Ossoff said that instead of acting as president, Trump wants to build a ballroom and “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace,” referencing the Air Force One given to Trump by Qatar.
Ossoff is up for reelection this fall in Georgia, a state at the center of Trump’s universe.
Trump won Georgia over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, before losing it in 2020 against President Biden. Trump famously never accepted that loss and pressured local officials to find the votes to overturn his defeat.
Ossoff was first elected to the Senate on Jan. 5, 2021, in a special runoff election. That was a day before crowds overcame police at the U.S. Capitol, forcing the evacuation of Congress as it sought to ratify the results of the 2020 presidential contest.
In 2024, Trump won Georgia again, but Ossoff is seen as the favorite in the purple state this fall.
Ossoff’s broadsides against Trump are widely seen as an attempt by the Democrat to raise his profile and excite the Democratic base ahead of what could be a presidential run by the Georgian.
While Ossoff insists he’s not interested in running for the White House, his national profile has rapidly expanded thanks in no small part to his growing beef with Trump and his MAGA allies.
“Ossoff has essentially moved beyond his race already,” one Republican strategist said. “This was a move that was clearly, wholly intended to put him on the national platform in a fight with the president, which isn’t something you do in a Senate race. It’s something you’re doing because you have larger, national ambitions.”
“It’s like bypassing the playoffs and already getting to the Super Bowl,” the strategist added.
Some Democrats said Ossoff’s attack was clearly intended to go after Democratic audiences online. Harp has been a person of interest online, but she is not a particularly well-known figure in Washington, let alone nationally.
“I think it was for a very, very specific hyper online audience,” one Democratic operative said. “I had to Google it to get the reference, and I’m paid to be chronically online.”
The operative described the attack as “Newsom-esque,” a reference to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) who is also mulling a presidential run.
“I think he made that comment to show that he can also throw a punch like Newsom,” the operative said. “It clearly got under their skin in a very real way.”
Ossoff’s attack invoking Harp was seen as a deeply personal attack by many in Trump’s orbit.
“We’re universally disgusted at the double standard Democrats have for working women. Natalie has given countless hours serving the president and our country,” Colton Snedecor, who previously served as White House deputy director of media affairs, told The Hill.
“Attempts to turn her service into a scandal is beneath any office, much less the one he’s gunning for. She deserves an apology and to be left alone,” he continued.
The White House rapid response account on X went as far as to attack a CNN correspondent over a question in the Oval Office on Monday about Ossoff’s comments, writing “someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question.”
However, Trump offered a notably less intense response to Ossoff’s attack when pressed by CNN. “You mean Pee-wee Herman? Pee-wee Herman look alike,” the president said.
When asked why he decided to specifically bring up Harp, Ossoff said he was referring to Trump retreating “into a bubble of West Wing aides who are his security blanket” at a time when the U.S. is at war.
Ossoff is considered the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent on the map this election cycle, but most polls show him with an advantage over his opponent Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.).
A Fox News poll released last month shows Ossoff leading Collins 56 percent to 43 percent among registered Georgia voters, while an AARP poll conducted last month by bipartisan pollsters Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research showed Ossoff leading Collins 52 percent to 43 percent.
Additionally, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race’s status from “toss up” to “lean Democratic” earlier this month.
Trump and Ossoff’s feud has a storied history going back to the senator’s 2021 runoff election following Trump’s loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The president has dubbed the senator “Pee-wee Herman,” while Ossoff labeled Trump as corrupt and unfit for office.
The feud intensified last month when Trump delivered a speech in which he raised a series of…
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