Vol. 27: Kellyanne Conway’s new romance

Her devotion to Trump broke up one marriage. Guess whom she’s after now?

Jul 24, 2023

You’re probably well aware of Kellyanne Conway’s devotion to Donald Trump. As senior counselor to the president, she was one of the few loyalists to remain in the White House throughout Trump’s term there (almost: Conway resigned at the tail end, in August 2020). Before that, Kellyanne managed Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign through its climactic final two months. Before that, she lived in Trump World Tower from 2001 to 2008. In 2013, she conducted private polls for Trump when he was considering running for governor of New York.

Whence springs this steadfast loyalty? In my role as a financial journalist, years ago I noticed that Trump’s default behavior mode toward his subordinates was abuse. Psychiatrists tell us that victims of abuse are often attracted to abusers, if only because it’s behavior they’re familiar with. And having observed Conway’s belligerent conduct toward journalists (for example, her response to her alleged violations of the federal Hatch Act: “Blah, blah, blah. If you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work. Let me know when the jail sentence starts”), I concluded that Conway herself was probably a victim of abuse.

I subsequently learned that Conway’s parents divorced when she was three and her father abandoned her when she was four. In a September 2018 interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, Conway mentioned that she had been the victim of a sexual assault. These misfortunes don’t necessarily prove my hunch, but they certainly don’t disprove it.

If she weren’t such a toxic influence on public political discourse, Conway might deserve our sympathy. But of course, the same could be said for Donald Trump himself, who was by all accounts the victim of an emotionally abusive father.

Love conquers politics?

You probably also know that Kellyanne’s fervor for Trump broke up her 22-year marriage to George Conway, a prominent lawyer who, notwithstanding his conservative principles, had no use for Trump and didn’t hesitate to say so. George Conway was a founder of the Lincoln Project, which has campaigned against Trump from a conservative perspective. As political odd couples go, the Conways’ marriage was the Trump era’s answer to the husband-and-wife team of James Carville and Mary Matalin, respectively Bill Clinton’s Democratic campaign manager and a Republican consultant, who have demonstrated (at least so far) that love conquers politics.

Except when it doesn’t. George Conway’s anti-Trump sniping was, needless to say, a great embarrassment to Kellyanne and vice versa, not to mention to Trump, who called George “a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” Adding to the drama within the Conway household, their daughter Claudia carved out her own unique niche within the family by publicly identifying not only as anti-Trump but also as leftist, liberal, and anti-cop, while claiming that her mother had been “physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive,” and posting videos purportedly showing Kellyanne screaming at and even once hitting Claudia.

Her newest hunk

In an effort to salvage their marriage and family, George and Kellyanne both quit their respective causes in August 2020. Nevertheless, this past March they announced that they were divorcing.

You probably don’t know— and are surely wondering— where Kellyanne has turned for romance since her marriage broke up. Has she set her sights on another heartthrob? Who’s the new hunk in Kellyanne Conway’s life?

Having surveyed my email in-box since March, I think I know the answer: Me.

Since Kellyanne Conway left her husband, she has sent me at least three email messages every day— often more, and at all hours of day and night. Many are deeply personal.

A recent sampling:

Tuesday, June 20, 2:02 p.m.: