Obama strategist turns on rising Dem star over viral Trump attack: 'Gratuitous and unnecessary'

A top Democratic strategist from the Obama White House contended that Sen. Jon Ossoff’s latest shot at President Donald Trump was "gratuitous and unnecessary."

The Georgia Democrat, who has expanded his profile throughout his re-election campaign during this midterm cycle to new heights that have him in the conversation for the 2028 presidential race, recently went viral for his remarks while on the trail, where he went after Trump.

Ossoff was blasting Trump for the war in Iran and the record-breaking deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East when the lawmaker pivoted to a new foe: the president’s executive assistant, Natalie Harp.

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Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks to members of the media during the opening of the Democratic Party of Georgia's South DeKalb Field Office and canvass kickoff in Decatur May 23, 2026. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks," Ossoff said. 

"So, 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."

The comment received strong pushback from Trump, his allies and family and Ossoff’s opponent, Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga.

But it also drew the ire of a major figure in the Democratic Party: David Axelrod, who was a key player in getting former President Barack Obama elected for two terms and served as his senior advisor.

While Axelrod applauded Ossoff’s previous "eloquent or incisive" attacks against Trump, he warned that mentioning Harp may not have been warranted.

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"The paragraph from his weekend speech that has gotten so much attention was a brutal takedown," Axelrod said on X. "But two words in it, ‘with Natalie,’ seemed gratuitous and unnecessary."

He contended the Ossoff campaign likely "juiced the virality" of the clip, which so far has over 6 million views on X, and that it "probably thrilled some in the base, who figured it was just giving Trump a taste of his own nasty medicine."

"But they distracted and detracted from the power of the message," Axelrod contended.

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Political analyst David Axelrod attends a Democratic presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas. (Getty Images)

And Collins agreed with Axelrod, to a degree, in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"It's disgusting that he would attack a young female staffer just to score cheap political points with his radical activist base," Collins said. "It's unbecoming of a U.S. senator, and the fact prominent Democrats are starting to call him out just proves it."

But other notable Democratic social media figures disagreed, like Joanne Carducci, better known as Jojofromjerz online, who countered that Axelrod was "100% wrong" and called Ossoff’s callout of Harp "genius."

"The political world has changed since you were a player in it, and if we continue to operate under the antiquated rules of the past, we’ll keep losing," she said on X.

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And Ossoff is reveling in the White House’s response, too, which included Trump calling him a "Pee-wee Herman look-alike," while defending the construction of the ballroom at the White House, which has been scrutinized by both sides of the aisle in the Senate.

During an appearance on MS NOW, Ossoff countered, "No one cares about their feelings."

"It's been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week," Ossoff said. "And about Natalie Harp, these White House staffers are adults, public officials paid by the taxpayers with immense power in positions of public trust."

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.