“Deferential” Kellyanne Conway Uses Her Femininity To Influence The President

When K.T. McFarland first heard the 2005 tape of Donald Trump boasting about grabbing women’s genitals, she talked to her two daughters.

“If anybody ever says stuff like that to you, walk away,” she told them.

But just six weeks later, McFarland got a call from Trump, then the president-elect, with an offer she couldn’t refuse.

A veteran of the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations and a longtime Fox News contributor, McFarland was elated at the chance to serve as the president’s deputy national security adviser — a top White House position.

To McFarland, the opportunity Trump gave her is proof that he trusts and respects women, regardless of what he’s said in the past in an “inadvertent, locker room kind of way.”

“If you want to honor women, give them an opportunity in the workplace,” she told Business Insider.

But McFarland is on her way out — she’s expected to take an ambassadorship to Singapore and will be replaced by an Army general — shrinking the already small group of women with Oval Office privileges. Once McFarland officially leaves the White House, just five of the 28 highest-paid White House staffers will be women.

The lack of diversity among those in top positions under Trump extends outside of the West Wing: Just six of the administration’s 24 Cabinet secretaries are either women or people of color — and none of them occupy top seats.