In the latest installment of the George Conway vs. Donald Trump saga, White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway defended her boss’s decision to push back against the public criticism from the man Trump branded her “husband from hell.” “You think he should just take that sitting down?” she asked. She also had some advice for those attempting to “play psychiatrist” with the president.
The public feud between Conway and Trump — which has largely been one-sided until recently — really ramped up over the last week after Conway echoed the Democrats’ attempts to portray Trump as mentally unfit for office by diagnosing the president as suffering from “narcissistic personality disorder.”
In a series of tweets this week, Conway, a D.C.-based lawyer, provided his followers with a clinical definition of the disorder he says he’s increasingly convinced is driving Trump’s actions: “narcissistic personality disorder: a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts,” including “a grandiose sense of self-importance,” being “preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success,” believing “that he or she is special or unique,” and requiring “excessive admiration.”
After ignoring him for months, Trump finally unleashed on his advisor’s heckling husband. Trump first smacked Conway as “A total loser!” in a repost of the Trump campaign manager claiming Conway got rejected by Trump for a job he really wanted in the administration.Trump unleashed a lengthier rebuke Wednesday in which he countered Conway’s diagnosis with a less clinical explanation for his actions.
“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” Trump tweeted. “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”
Kellyanne Conway weighed in on the rapidly escalating battle between her husband in a phone interview with Politico Wednesday. Calling Trump a “counterpuncher,” she defended his decision to swipe back.
“He left it alone for months out of respect for me,” Conway told Politico. “But you think he shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?”
As for her husband and the media trying to diagnose Trump, Kellyanne had some advice: “Don’t play psychiatrist any more than George should be. You’re not a psychiatrist and he’s not, respectfully.”
Trump’s initial “total loser” post was in reply to his campaign manager Brad Parscale claiming: “We all know that @realDonaldTrump turned down Mr. Kellyanne Conway for a job he desperately wanted. He barely worked @TheJusticeDept and was either fired/quit, didn’t want the scrutiny? Now he hurts his wife because he is jealous of her success. POTUS doesn’t even know him!”
George Conway replied to that by calling it a “lie” and highlighting a post by a fact-checker:
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