Kellyanne’s Future & The G.O.P.’s First ’24 Strike

In the nascent Trump campaign, Kellyanne Conway has played a bit of a two-step—acting as a top advisor to Trump (albeit unpaid) while also a Fox News contributor, where she can spread the Trump gospel.
In the nascent Trump campaign, Kellyanne Conway has played a bit of a two-step—acting as a top advisor to Trump (albeit unpaid) while also a Fox News contributor, where she can spread the Trump gospel. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Tara Palmeri
January 31, 2023

Donald Trump’s campaign launched-ish last weekend with two stops in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. I wrote extensively last summer about the campaign’s org chart and management philosophy: small and flat and with Trump calling all the shots. So many of the cast from last season—like Hope Hicks, Ivanka, Brad Parscale and Jason Miller—are sitting this one out, apparently harboring little interest in returning. But Kellyanne Conway has played a bit of a two-step—acting as a top advisor to Trump, albeit unpaid, while also a Fox News contributor, where she can spread the Trump gospel and call out strategies she sees as ineffectual. That’s prompted some to wonder which costume is a foil: TV news talking head or boomerang I-Just-Can’t-Quit-You campaign operative?