New hire previously worked for Gosar and Gaetz press offices
The White House on Friday defended Beni Rae Harmony, its newly hired assistant press secretary, after a 2021 holiday photograph resurfaced showing her wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” T-shirt and holding a rifle. Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly wrote that Harmony “has been a trusted voice for the MAGA movement as a White House correspondent,” adding: “She will be an outstanding addition to President Trump’s communications team as an Assistant Press Secretary – we look forward to having her on board!”
Harmony, 24, revealed on Friday that she was going to work for Trump just days after covering him as a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a partisan right-wing outlet The Guardian reported was originally created as a video podcast platform for the president’s former adviser Steve Bannon. According to Harmony’s LinkedIn profile, she previously worked as a producer for Jack Posobiec, a host for the organization Turning Point USA, which The Guardian identified as far-right. She also worked as a press aide “focusing on crisis management” for Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, both described by The Guardian as far-right Republicans.
In 2021, when Gosar was censured by the U.S. House for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Joe Biden, Harmony recorded a defense of her boss for his YouTube channel.
The photograph at the center of the controversy — showing Harmony and an older man posing with rifles in matching anti-Biden shirts in front of Christmas decorations — was reportedly posted on Instagram in November 2021 by Jarome Bell, a Republican House candidate The Guardian identified as far-right who mounted a failed campaign for Congress in 2022. The post, captured by the Daily Mirror, included the caption: “My campaign Public Affairs Director @beniraeharmony is a beast. This is how we roll.”
Harmony appeared to verify the authenticity of the photograph in December 2021, when it was shared on social media by PatriotTakes, an outlet The Guardian described as anti-MAGA. The next day, Harmony replied to the PatriotTakes post with another image of herself, wearing the same shirt in the same location and grinning into the camera. When another social media user posted a sarcastic question about the relationship between the older man and the young woman, asking “Daughter or date?”, Harmony replied with a one-word answer: “Uncle.”
Harmony did not reply to requests to comment on the photograph. The chant on the shirt became a viral meme in autumn 2021, after Trump supporters at a NASCAR race used variations of the slogan.
The hire places Harmony in a White House press office that The Guardian reported has taken “unprecedented steps” to ensure the president is “surrounded at all times by correspondents from partisan outlets.” Trump has moved to bar CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House entirely, according to the report, while his aides now select which outlets are in place to ask him questions, with frequent slots reserved for correspondents who openly support him.
Harmony became the White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice after her predecessor, Brian Glenn, fell out of favor with Trump. Glenn’s partner, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, had broken with the president and accused him of betraying the Make America Great Again movement. Glenn had previously worked to advance Trump’s political agenda when invited by the president to ask questions. In 2025, for instance, Glenn asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy why he refused to wear a suit in the Oval Office — a question that inflamed an already volatile encounter.
During a press availability on Air Force One last month, Trump approached reporters carrying a sheaf of papers in his left hand. Harmony asked Trump a series of friendly questions that, according to The Guardian, “seemed designed to help him score political points.” As TMZ reported on Friday, Associated Press photographs taken during the exchange showed Harmony’s name at the top of the first page in the president’s hand, suggesting he may have been holding her résumé as he took her questions.
Harmony achieved a measure of celebrity in what The Guardian described as right-wing media in 2025, when she left her job as an on-air host at a local TV station in Springfield, Illinois, after delivering an on-air tribute to the late Charlie Kirk, describing him as her first boss and mentor. The station’s news director denied that Harmony had been suspended over the tribute, as she claimed, and clarified that she had never been a member of its news team. Instead, she hosted a program run by the channel’s sales department that featured clients who paid to be interviewed on television.