Kellyanne Conway: ‘Winning formula’ for Trump involves ‘fewer insults’

by Tara Suter - 08/13/24 9:29 AM ET

Kellyanne Conway, former senior adviser to Donald Trump, speaks during the third day of Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway offered former President Trump advice in an interview Monday, urging the GOP presidential nominee to throw fewer insults at his political opponents and focus more on policy differences.

“The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see,” Conway told Fox Business anchor Larry Kudlow. “It’s fewer insults, more insights and that policy contrast.”

Trump has been slinging insults at Vice President Harris as she has risen to the top of the Democratic ticket. Harris is now neck and neck with the former president in polling, with The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling index placing her 1.4 points ahead of Trump, 47.8 percent to 46.4 percent.

“He’s got that hunger, swagger, underdog, underestimated of 2016 back, Larry, and you overlay that with the four-year presidential record where we did have growth — we did have wage growth, we had low unemployment and the whole nine that you and I know,” Conway said in the clip, highlighted by Mediaite.

The former president has also faced blowback for questioning Harris’s racial identity during a controversial interview late last month at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — a Trump ally — has advised him against continuing such attacks.

“So, here’s what I would say to President Trump: The problem I have with Kamala Harris is not her heritage. It is her judgment,” Graham said earlier this month. “Every day we’re talking about her heritage and not her terrible, dangerous liberal record throughout her entire political life is a good day for her and a bad day for us.”

“So, I would encourage President Trump to prosecute the case against Kamala Harris’s bad judgment,” the senator added.

Harris has been gaining momentum in the first few weeks of her campaign, garnering key endorsements from figures in her party, pulling in large hauls from fundraising and officially becoming the Democratic nominee in a short period of time. Her ascent followed President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race late last month after weeks of pressure from his fellow Democrats to step aside.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign.