Throughout the nearly four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and the campaign that came before it, Trump’s team has cycled through an unending revolving door, with staff members and administration officials constantly leaving to work at Fox News, go to prison, or to “spend more time with their families.” Throughout all of it, the original team that’s stuck around since the beginning has basically been limited to Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s immediate family. Well, now Conway is officially out.
Conway has been with Trump since nearly the beginning. She was Trump’s third campaign manager after Corey Lewandowski, who once appeared to physically assault a female reporter on camera, was fired and Paul Manafort, currently serving a 7 1/2 year prison sentence under house arrest, unofficially took over those duties for a while. Conway was the first woman to ever manage a winning U.S. presidential campaign. Her longevity in Trump’s inner circle was very likely due to her willingness to lie for Trump about anything and everything. This was the woman who coined the term “alternative facts,” after all.
Conway announced Sunday that she was leaving the White House and it actually does appear to be her decision rather than the forced resignation we so often see in this administration. Conway says she wants to focus on her family (“less drama, more mama” were her exact words), but that standard excuse was bolstered by the fact that her husband, George Conway, is also stepping down from his position at the anti-Trump grift PAC The Lincoln Project.
The Conways’ 15-year-old daughter Claudia says her parents’ claims that they want to focus on the family are “not genuine,” though. Claudia has gotten a lot of attention recently for her TikTok and Twitter presence where she viciously criticizes Trump as well as her mother’s role in his administration. Earlier in the day, Claudia announced she would be taking a break from social media but returned to comment on her parents’ announcements, which she says were not discussed with her or her three sisters, and which she learned about on Twitter.
In a disturbing TikTok video livestreamed Sunday night, Claudia claims that her parents were planning to get a divorce but decided not to in order to try to keep her from emancipating herself, which she says she’s been wanting to do for years. She says she’s waiting until her 16th birthday in October but that she’s talking to lawyers. Claudia seems to believe her parent’s decision to leave their jobs might also have to do with her desire to become legally emancipated.
Claudia expresses disbelief that her parents actually care about their family, saying her father “doesn’t care about me, he’s never cared about me, he probably doesn’t even know my middle name.” She says her mother has “belittled and badgered my entire life.” She also accused both her parents of physically abusing her, saying her mother has been “very, very physically abusive” toward her for years.
She also made repeated references to her mother having her arrested, which she’s spoken about (or rather, memed about) before on TikTok, saying she was arrested for making “false statements” about Kellyanne online. In a video recapping her “2020 so far,” she said there have been “non-stop CPS investigations because my parents are abusive.”
Claudia Conway became a major internet sensation practically overnight, as her intense political views added an unexpected twist to the bizarre, contentious, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?-esque public dynamic between her parents. But as Claudia says in this video, “this is not a joke.” She accuses her parents of putting on “a show” for the media, with her at the center of it.
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, you can reach out to the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline online or by calling or texting 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) or the National Domestic Violence Hotline online or at 1-800-799-7233. You can find state reporting numbers for child abuse and neglect here.
(via Washington Post, Molly McAlee on Twitter, image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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