Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Press Secretary, The White House
Conway, a former pollster who successfully managed the Trump campaign in its final days, becoming the first female campaign manager to win a presidential election, is one of the few survivors of the original senior White House group. She has the ear of the president and advises him on both policy and politics. Her no-holds-barred interviews on television – from her use of the term “alternative facts” on NBC after the Inauguration to more recently clashing with CNN’s Dana Bash after the journalist asked Conway about her husband’s seemingly critical tweets about the President – has earned her continued admiration from Trump. At the White House, she is a jack of all trades: She was appointed “opioid czar” by the president to help combat the nation’s substance abuse crisis, and is essentially running the communications shop, which has been leaderless since the departure of Hope Hicks.
Sanders is the unwavering front woman for the administration, who faces the press each day on national television, defending the president, reinforcing his views and taking the “arrows” slung by the press corps.
As a result, she is trusted and well-liked by the Commander in Chief. Still, in her hands the White House daily briefing often loses its relevance as an accurate account of the president’s daily activities, as journalists try to sort out the facts from the half-truths, and downright falsehoods.
