Kellyanne Conway on managing Trump: 'It's like saying to someone, "How about having 2 brownies and not 6?"'
Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has some telling strategies for managing the Republican nominee, a New York Magazine piece revealed on Saturday.
The piece, which notes that Conway is a mother of four who has had "ample experience with unruly toddlers," describes Conway and her colleagues' attempts to rein in Trump's behavior or influence his decisions in the final days leading up to the election.
According to Conway, the trick is to make Trump think he's in control at all times: "It all has to be his decision in the end," she told the magazine.
For example, in an effort to sway Trump on changing his Twitter habits - which include shooting off streams of angry tweets at all hours of the night - Conway said she refrained from criticizing the candidate and suggested he include some positive tweets.
"You had these people saying, 'Delete the app! Stop tweeting!'" Conway said. "I would say, 'Here are a couple of cool things we should tweet today.' It's like saying to someone, 'How about having two brownies instead of six?'"
Conway also described struggling to convince Trump of the stakes of the election and the weight of his supporters' expectations:
"I got really mad at him the other day," she said. "He said, 'I think we'll win, and if not, that's okay too. And I said, 'It's not okay! You can't say that! Your dry-cleaning bill is like the annual salaries of the people who came to your rallies, and they believe in you!"