Announcing she’ll leave her senior adviser post with the White House August 31, 53-year-old Kellyanne Conway allowed her personal problems to drive her out of the White House less than three months before the Nov. 3 election. Conway, who became in 2016 the first female to run a successful presidential campaign, has been with Trump since practically Day One baggage and all, dragging her 56-year-old “never Trumper” husband George through a knot hole for the last four years. George co-founded the so-called Lincoln Project Dec. 17, 2019 with anti-Trumpers Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, Rick Wilson, Jennifer Horn, Ron Steslow and Reed Galen. Kellyanne found herself sucked into the daily attacks largely coming from her publicity-starved husband, getting all the traction he wanted from the anti-Trump media. George was a personal embarrassment to Kellyanne trying to do her White House job.
Kellyanne’s resignation was long overdue, serving as a distraction to Trump’s campaign as he battles for a second term. Whatever problems Kellyanne has with George, they eclipsed on Twitter by her 15-year-old daughter Claudia, an avid TikTok devotee, frequently tweeting hateful messages about Trump, airing her family’s dirty laundry and dysfunction in public. Kellyanne hinted on Twitter that her and her husband George will make “unspecified changes,” possibly separation. “We disagree about plenty but we are united on what matters most: the kids,” Kellyanne said in a statement. Bailing out on the eve of the Republican National Convention [RNC], let alone the Nov. 3 election, raises suspicions, most likely pushed out by Trump for disrupting the campaign. Since late last year, Kellyanne’s husband George couldn’t stop himself from making disparaging tweets about Trump.
Trump once called George “a stone cold loser,” for the constant barrage of insults stemming from Kellyanne’s impetuous husband. It’s doubtful Kellyanne would leave at this point unless Trump got fed up enduring the nuisance of Geroge’s constant barrage on Twitter, echoed by his daughter, Claudia. “Our four children are teens and “tweens” starting a new academic years, in middle school and high school, remotely from home for at least a few months,” Kellyanne wrote, making lots of excuses but not answering the obvious question, why now? While Kellyanne said the decision to leave the White House was “completely” her choice, saying she wanted less “drama and more mama,” a cute way of saying she was doing it for her kids. No senior adviser to Trump in the middle of a brutal reelection fight would bail out unless pushed because she’d become a major distraction.
Trump’s inner circle led by his 39-year-old daughter Ivanka and her 39-year-old husband, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, were fed up with Kellyanne’s theatrics with her husband, George. Explaining away George’s constant disparaging tweets just got old to all involved, including Trump. Running about 8% behind in national polls, there’s no more room for error between now and the election, letting Kellanne and her husband steal the headlines. Any anti-Trump Republican, like Conway or Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.), get feted by the media, given as much free publicity as they want for attacking the president. Whatever problems Kellyanne has with George and her kids, she knew the daily circus couldn’t go on much longer, listening to her husband shoot off his mouth daily against Trump. Whatever happens to Kellyanne and George, the Trump campaign didn’t’ need the distraction.
Conway told the anti-Trump Washington Post that he started the Lincoln Project out of pure frustration, saying Trump’s presidency was “maddening to watch.” What George couldn’t fathom was that his wife got all the attention serving as senior adviser to the president. Conway said he tweets often so he doesn’t “end up screaming” at Kellyanne about the president. Kellyanne no longer commanded the same high-profile position as she did in 2016, serving as a daily sounding board for the press. Four years later, she pretty much stays to herself, largely because the media wants to talk about her husband’s anti-Trump “Lincoln Project,” really something not worth talking about. Called by Trump “the husband from hell,” Kellyanne’s got some work to do if it’s possible to salvage her marriage. George sabotaged her work as senior adviser, stealing all the headlines with his nearly daily attacks.
Kellyanne left the White House because she became a daily news story, explaining her husband’s daily attacks, amounting to daily harassment by the campaign. Whether she “goes back to her family” or not, Kellyanne had to admit George sabotaged her White House job, forcing her to resign. With less than three months to go to the election, Ivanka and Jared couldn’t continue to let Kellyanne’s personal problems leak into the campaign. Announcing she’s leave after the RNC convention makes more headlines not wanted by the campaign, looking to gain traction over the next four days. Unlike Democrat nominee 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump plans to appear at every night during the next four day, ending with his Thursday night acceptance speech. Getting one more distraction off the headlines should help Trump’s campaign in the next critical two months.
