Trump Allies Suspect Kellyanne Conway Is Trashing JD Vance to the Press: Trump Is ‘Pissed off About It’

Donald Trump ally and Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway has been trashing Sen. JD Vance to the media, according to more than a dozen sources The Bulwark spoke with.

The outlet published reporting by Marc Caputo on Wednesday about Vance’s rocky start as Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Vance has come under scrutiny for demeaning “childless cat ladies” and claiming that childless people “don’t really have a direct stake in” the country. He has also advocated parents receive additional votes for each child they have. The senator has also bombed at telling the occasional “joke.”

There has been some speculation that Vance could be jettisoned as Trump’s running mate, though this is unlikely. The Bulwark spoke with 20 Trump aides, allies, and confidants who threw cold water on the idea. Twelve of them, however, blamed Conway unprompted for trash-talking Vance to the press:

In interviews with The Bulwark, twenty Trump campaign staffers, allies, confidants, and advisers were quick to shoot down any notion that Trump was turning his back on Vance or was displeased with him amid his rocky rollout. But more than a dozen of those sources volunteered without prompting that they believed Conway, who initially opposed the selection of Vance, was undermining him through leaks to the press expressing doubts about his readiness and the campaign’s vetting.

Conway denied the accusations to The Bulwark and called the sources “gossip girls” and “ankle biters.”

“When it comes to concerned people questioning the vetting or selection of JD Vance, the calls are coming in, not going out,” she said. “I’m not calling them and saying this is bad. People are asking me. They’re not just asking me. They’re asking lots of people.”

A Trump confidant told the publication the leaks are “100 percent from Kellyanne.”

One member of Donald Trump Jr.’s inner circle said, “He’s pissed off about it. He knows it’s her.” However, one Trump family member told The Bulwark that the Trump family “in general thinks very highly of her.”