Parents understand Conway’s departure from Trump’s team
Family relationships are often messy, sometimes hurtful and occasionally a source of discomfort and embarrassment.
This may be why we’re watching the Conway saga with a mix of apprehension, pity and morbid curiosity. At some point or another, we’ve all known friction — sometimes outright rejection too — from those dearest to us. If you’re one of the rare few who hasn’t experienced that rollercoaster of confusing connections, you’ve probably not lived a long enough life. But that’s another matter altogether.
Back to the Conways. Mom Kellyanne worked for President Trump until recently. A longtime Republican pollster, she served as his campaign manager in 2016 and has been his stalwart supporter ever since. I will forever associate her with a phrase that makes the hair on my neck stand on end: alternative facts. Her husband George is a conservative columnist best known for his vociferous criticism of Trump. (Yes, his wife’s boss.) He’s a founder of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump PAC that has produced some memorable election ads.
Somehow George and Kellyanne managed to make this arrangement work, even as both became prime players in this year’s presidential campaigns. How they did it was fodder for plenty of speculation and late-night comedy snipes, and though I don’t agree with their politics, I found the Conways’ commitment to the marriage admirable. Should all couples possess such fortitude and loyalty.
This tenuous arrangement, however, turned out to be no match for a 15-yearold with a platform. Claudia Conway, one of their four children, took to Twitter and TikTok to express her dismay with her clueless parents who, she believed, had their priorities all wrong.
In addition to the typical teen lip-synching and dance videos, Claudia expressed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ rights. She encouraged others to leave bad reviews of Trump properties and posted #savebarron, a tongue-in-cheek social media hashtag aimed at “saving” Barron Trump from his father.
We may never know if her postings were a true political epiphany or a defiant posture against her parents. After all, back in July, when George condemned the media coverage of the family, Claudia took to Twitter by posting “you’re just mad that i’m finally getting my voice heard. sorry your marriage failed.” Her mother didn’t escape her wrath either. On TikTok Claudia posted a mocking video about her “love” for Trump and how she had been cured. She concluded by saying “MAGA” with a wink.
The result from such bickering was expected. A few days ago, she declared she wanted legal emancipation from her parents. Within hours both Kellyanne and George resigned from their political jobs, stating they needed to tend the home fires.
Claudia, by the way, is not the only child, famous on their own or by association, who has clamored for such independence. Drew Barrymore, Macaulay Culkin, Frances Bean Cobain all successfully divorced one or both parents.
Some might want to cast this very public domestic tale as an object lesson in … well, in something. The hubris of the self-righteous family-values crowd. The challenges of career-driven parents. Resistance within the GOP ranks. The comeuppance of a woman willing to lie for her boss.
It isn’t.
This is less about a difference in political leanings and more about the minefield of the teenage years, a period which, even under the best circumstances, is fraught with irritations, provocations and insurrections. Actually, it’s all about the pain of growing up, of wanting more attention, of hoping for different parents, and of a desire to carve out a separate identity. Anyone who has raised teenagers and wrangled adolescent rebellion will recognize it.
The difference between the Conways’ domestic drama and our own, of course, is that we don’t have hundreds of thousands of social media followers as an audience, many egging us on. And thank goodness for that.
When contemplating the Conways, every family should think: There but for the grace of God…