Trump aide scolds her husband for furious row with president
White House aide Kellyanne Conway publicly backed Donald Trump yesterday after an extraordinary 48-hour Twitter row between the president and her husband came to a head.
Kellyanne Conway used a cable news interview to insist she would not resign and rebuked her husband, George, for airing his views in public.
The war of words began when George Conway, a prominent conservative lawyer, suggested the president suffered from a narcissistic personality disorder, adding: ‘‘His condition is getting worse every day.’’ Trump issued a scathing response on Wednesday, tweeting: ‘‘George Conway, often referred to as Mr Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is very jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!’’ Later, in front of the cameras, Trump added: ‘‘He’s a whack job . . . I think he’s doing a tremendous disservice to his wonderful wife.’’
Asked to untangle the situation yesterday, Kellyanne Conway told Fox Business: ‘‘I appreciate the president defending what he thinks is unfairness. I’ll leave that up to him. I was raised, though, in a household of strong Italian Catholic women who taught me that you air grievances like that in private, so it is very surprising to see it be so public.’’ She ruled out leaving her position, although she said her husband would like her to step down. ‘‘I’m not being asked to choose between my marriage and my job,’’ she said.
‘‘What message would that send to the feminists everywhere who pretend they’re independent thinkers and men don’t make decisions for them? They can talk it, and I can walk it. I can live it.’’
Trump relied heavily on Kellyanne Conway, a long-time Republican strategist, to help steer his presidential campaign to victory in 2016.
Appearing pained at times during the interview, she said: ‘‘I don’t know when the feminists are going to write this story about the unusual situation of a man getting power through his wife but that’s what we have here.’’
George Conway had at one time been friendly with Trump and contemplated taking a job within the administration’s department of justice.
His attacks on the president increased this week after a ‘‘tweet storm’’ in which Trump attacked the late senator John McCain, Google and the Russia investigation. George Conway told the
Washington Post that he tweeted about Trump in order to avoid taking his frustrations out on his wife. ‘‘Frankly, it’s so I don’t end up screaming at her about it,’’ he said.