Is Kellyanne Conway the real first lady?


Is Kellyanne Conway the real first lady of President Trump's administration? That's the suggestion of a lengthy new profile of the silver-tongued White House counselor in Monday's edition of New York.
"In the time I spent observing her and talking to her over the past several weeks," Olivia Nuzzi writes of Conway, "her mood rarely seemed anything other than elated — perhaps because of how many people she encountered, wherever she went in Washington, who greeted her like a hometown hero." Even when Conway failed, Nuzzi observes, when she was caught in misstatements or falsehoods that would sink other political careers, Conway only became more central to the Trump team:
Her notoriety seemed only to help her standing with the president, who has kept her as a trusted adviser and the White House's most recognizable avatar on the outside. By March, she was less a pollster, campaign manager, or communications guru and more what the press expected Ivanka Trump would become in the absence of Melania Trump, who remains in New York with her young son, Barron — a pervasive female double of the president, an extension of his will and much more fiendishly committed to her boss than anyone else working on his behalf. Fewer than 50 days into the new administration, Conway had become almost inseparable from the public's idea of the Trump White House. That is, the functional first lady of the United States. [New York]
Read the full profile here.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A missile garden, a line of lava, and more
-
Sweden's Soft Hooligans: the fans who brought 'good vibes' to the Euros
Under the Radar Formed to create a fun fan atmosphere, the Swedish football supporter group has been bringing the party to the championship
-
Crossword: July 18, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Fed chair Powell in Trump's firing line
Speed Read The president considers removing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
-
Trump trashes supporters over Epstein files
speed read The president lashed out on social media following criticism of his administration's Jeffrey Epstein investigation
-
Judge nixes wiping medical debt from credit checks
Speed Read Medical debt can now be included in credit reports
-
Grijalva wins Democratic special primary for Arizona
Speed Read She will go up against Republican nominee Daniel Butierez to fill the US House seat her father held until his death earlier this year
-
US inflation jumps as Trump tariffs 'bite'
Speed Read Consumer prices are climbing and the inflation rate rose to its highest level in four months
-
SCOTUS greenlights mass DOE firings
Speed Read The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to further shrink the Education Department
-
Cuomo announces third-party run for NYC mayor
Speed Read He will go up against progressive Democratic powerhouse Zohran Mamdani and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams
-
Secret Service 'failures' on Trump shooting
Speed Read Two new reports detail security breakdowns that led to attempts on the president's life