Donnatella 'Donna' Moss, formerly Senior Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Planning is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Although all of the senior staff's assistants are true characters with personal backgrounds, Donna was the most well-defined and frequently featured staff member on the assistant level.

Donna was Josh's assistant, until she quit her job in the episode "Impact Winter" (s6e09); she had a complex relationship with her boss. It was revealed in the episode Faith Based Initiative in season 6 that the new position she had taken was that of senior aide to Will Bailey's campaign manager in the effort to elect current Vice President Bob Russell president, a position which places her in direct conflict with her former boss, Josh Lyman who resigned in that episode to run the campaign of retiring US Conrgressman Matt Santos, whom he had convinced to run for President.

Donna found out in the third season that she is a no longer a United States citizen, after the Minnesota town in which she was born ended up in Canada due to border changes. However, her citizenship was granted to her again after the discovery of a grandfather clause in the law. Donna was a recurring character during the first season, although she appeared in every episode, and has been a regular since the second. She was seriously injured as a result of a terrorist attack on the American convoy carrying her and others in Gaza. At the end of the fifth season it was revealed that Donna has a pulmonary embolism and must undergo life-threatening surgery to survive. Survive she did, and is currently assisting the Vice President's campaign.

Josh and Donna's relationship

There is a continuing, unrequited love story—or so some would say—between Donna Moss and deputy White House chief of staff Josh Lyman. The pair had not only a close working relationship, but a close personal friendship as well.

Since the first episode of the show up until the middle of season 6, when Donna quit her assistant's job, the pair constantly flirted and bantered with each other:

• Donna encouraged Josh to date pollster Joey Lucas in the second season, which led to two revelations: Josh intentionally sabotages Donna's dating life and Joey thought Donna was encouraging Josh to pursue her as a misdirection ploy because Donna was in love with Josh, the first overt mention of a possible romance.

• Donna had a brief affair with Republican House attorney, Cliff Calley, while he was involved in the investigation of misconduct relating to the concealment of President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis. Calley, due to his personal relationship with Moss, discovered that she lied under oath about keeping a diary, forcing Josh to cut a secret deal with Calley.
• Things slowly picked up through Season 4 as Donna went through a brief fling with White House military advisor Jack Reese, another Republican, a fact which did not escape Josh's notice. Meanwhile, Josh's relationship with feminist Amy Gardner ended (although the two very briefly got back together at the beginning of Season 5). Donna recruited Josh to help her land a date with Jack, and although Josh attempted to help her it did more to reveal Josh's feelings for Donna than anything else.
• In the fifth season, on the advice of C.J. Cregg, Donna tried to broaden her horizons past Josh and pursue her own social life outside of the White House. This prompted Donna to sleep with journalist Colin Ayres while she was on a Congressional delegation to the Gaza Strip. Donna was badly injured in a terrorist attack shortly after her encounter with Colin, and both Josh and Colin rushed to her bedside at a military hospital in Germany. Colin found it strange that her boss flew across an ocean to be with her, but Josh unconvincingly claimed that he was just Donna's friend. Later, in the sixth season premiere NSF Thurmont, Colin called Josh out on his feelings for Donna while she was still in surgery and then left to go back to Gaza.

• At the end of the fifth season finale Memorial Day, Josh was bringing a dozen red roses, a traditional sign of love, to Donna in her hospital room, only to find that she'd been rushed into surgery for a pulmonary embolism, the same thing that had killed his father. Donna, however, came out of the surgery fine.

• Now both working for different people (she for Vice President Russell, he for Presidential contender Matthew Santos), many fans believe that a romantic relationship between the two is more likely since they are no longer working together.

With Donna and Josh's new jobs, in direct competition with one another, such a relationship becomes more and more difficult to posit.

With the Presidential election and inauguration due to occur in the show's seventh season (2005 - 2006), no word has been announced on which main cast members will remain with the series after this change occurs. Given their positions, it is unlikely that both Donna and Josh will remain with the show, but this remains to be seen.

See also

• The West Wing
• Characters on The West Wing
• List of The West Wing episodes