Claudia and Kellyanne Conway’s Ongoing TikTok Drama, Explained
This is Wait, What?, a column that explains the seemingly incomprehensible.
Since President Donald Trump announced that he and the First Lady tested positive for the coronavirus last Friday, several other GOP figures within his orbit have also disclosed that they’ve been infected: Chris Christie, Kayleigh McEnany, Thom Tillis, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, and, notably, Kellyanne Conway. For the latter, the ordeal is playing out as a highly public family drama with her daughter Claudia Conway on TikTok. It’s just like Tolstoy wrote: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is fighting on Gen Z’s favorite dance video app.” Confused? Come and gaze into the social media abyss with me.
Who is Claudia Conway?
Kellyanne’s 15-year-old daughter, who first came to attention over the summer for espousing her left-leaning political views on her TikTok account. A parent and their kid not seeing eye-to-eye isn’t exactly novel, but it’s bound to make news when the parent is a high-ranking official in the Trump administration and the kid is posting “hi so if you’re leftist, acab, anti-trump, blm, etc. please interact w this.” Since then, Claudia has garnered over 1 million followers on the platform.
This isn’t the first time the Conway family has publicly disagreed about politics, right?
Right. As you may remember, Kellyanne’s husband George Conway has been a frequent outspoken critic of Trump. Here, an exchange that exemplifies a normal and healthy relationship with your wife’s boss:
In August, Kellyanne announced that she would be leaving her White House gig to focus on her family, writing in a statement that, “For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.” One of those things has not exactly come into fruition.
So what has Claudia been posting as of late?
A few hours before Kellyanne officially announced her COVID diagnosis on Twitter on Friday afternoon, Claudia posted a TikTok of herself in a mask with the text “update my mom has covid.” She followed it up shortly after with another one, writing “im furious. wear your masks. dont listen to our idiot fucking president piece of shit. protect yourselves and those around you.” Other videos have since been deleted, including one that features Claudia and Kellyanne audibly arguing. “You’ve caused so much disruption,” Kellyanne says. “You lied about your fucking mother, about COVID!”
Claudia has also been in the comment sections of other TikToks disputing the president’s claims that he’s feeling good and about to be discharged from the hospital, writing “apparently he is doing badly lol and they are doing what they can to stabilize him.”
What is the public reaction?
Many #resistance liberals have lauded Claudia as a White House “whistleblower.”
Put succinctly:
Has Kellyanne responded?
Yes, but sadly not via a TikTok dance. “My daughter, Claudia, is beautiful & brilliant,” she wrote on Twitter. “She has access to top doctors & health care & lives comfortably. Like all of you, she speculates on social media. Yet she’s 15. You are adults. We have COVID, but it’s clear who’s really sick.”
Are there any other politician offspring we should be following on TikTok?
I wouldn’t know, because I’m too old to be on TikTok. That said, Hunter Biden should definitely get on TikTok.
Anything els—
HUNTER BIDEN TIKTOK!
A SWAT team descended on the YouTube star’s Calabasas mansion on Wednesday morning.
Originally Appeared on GQ
