Kellyanne Conway tries to criticize her husband's anti-Trump tweets off the record, is unsuccessful

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 16 August 2018

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway invited The Washington Post's Ben Terris to her family's new $7.7 million house in an elite Washington, D.C., neighborhood "where wealth and influence serve as a cooling balm for the partisan inflammation that has spread elsewhere," Terris writes, and "everybody — Democrat and Republican — belongs to the garden party." But Terris mostly writes about their marriage — her, President Trump's MAGA flame-keeper, and him a prominent #NeverTrump conservative with an A-plus Twitter game. Their marriage, as Terris describes it, is straight out of a sitcom.

"He's not just my boss," Kellyanne says, after the couple shows Terris a photo George took of Trump on election night. "He's our president." "Yeah," George replies, walking out of the room. "We'll see how long that lasts." But Kellyanne's job and George's anti-Trump tweets are clearly a source of tension in the marriage, as Terris captures in this conversation:

Me: You told me you found [George’s tweets] disrespectful.Kellyanne: It is disrespectful, it's a violation of basic decency, certainly, if not marital vows ... as "a person familiar with their relationship."Me: No, we're on the record here. You can't say after the fact "as someone familiar."Kellyanne: I told you everything about his tweets was off the record.Me: No, that's not true. That never happened. ... We never discussed everything about his tweets being off the record. There are certain things you said that I put off the record.Kellyanne: Fine. I've never actually said what I think about it and I won't say what I think about it, which tells you what I think about it. [The Washington Post]

"This may be the story of any marriage — partners can drive each other crazy and still stay together for 50 years — but this marriage is, in many ways, emblematic of our national political predicament, particularly on the right," Terris concludes. Read the entire, mostly sympathetic profile at The Washington Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.