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- Claudia Conway, teenage daughter of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is increasingly a thorn in the side of the Trump administration.
- She has millions of followers on TikTok, where she blasts President Trump and broke the news of her mother’s coronavirus diagnosis.
- “She’s an important political figure in her own right and has a bigger and more relevant audience than most mainstream journalists and broadcasters,” said communications expert Penny CS Andrews.
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The TikTok account of a 15-year-old American teen has cast an uncomfortable public spotlight on the Trump administration and its handling of the coronavirus.
Claudia Conway, the daughter of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is an outspoken and often unfiltered Trump critic on TikTok.
She has garnered more than 1 million followers, who see her posts as a direct lens into the administration’s workings. They also appear to enjoy direct insight into ongoing Conway family drama — made more delicate by Claudia Conway’s open discussions about her struggles with her mental health.
Her mother Kellyanne served as Trump’s advisor between 2017 and 2020, and still acts as an outrider for his administration on mainstream news channels.
At times, her daughter’s unfiltered, popular posts have undermined her.
Over the weekend, Claudia posted confirmation that she and her mother tested positive on TikTok.
That post triggered a torrent of news coverage, with Kellyanne compelled to publicly confirm her positive diagnosis.
Conway's diagnosis contributed to coverage that coronavirus had become widespread in and around the Trump White House, after the president and other members of the administration also tested positive.
As Claudia Conway drove the news cycle, her posts also became an uncomfortable lens into her relationship with her mother.
At one point, the teen claimed on TikTok her mother had lied about a negative coronavirus test, something Kellyanne demanded she publicly correct. Three videos and multiple live streams on the app charted the family dispute, some of which were subsequently made private.
Videos showing Claudia's frank discussions about her mental health were also made private.
The demand from Kellyanne Conway to rebut claims made on her daughter's TikTok account through the same medium shows the reach the 15-year-old has, according to Penny CS Andrews, a PhD researcher in information, media and communication at the University of Sheffield.
"She's an important political figure in her own right and has a bigger and more relevant audience than most mainstream journalists and broadcasters," they said.
"At a time when people are searching for truth beyond the White House spin, her voice from the inside would be important anyway but she has also been consistent in her views and her followers and viewers know she is not just being controversial to upset her parents."
Earlier in the week, the teen made a tongue-in-cheek reference to her insider status, writing in one video: "Me deleting all my problematic TikToks before I end up on Fox News again."
Claudia has previously passed comment on Trump's health as he battles COVID-19, describing his stance on not wearing masks an example of an "idiot fucking president piece of shit".
In another video, she said her followers should "vote him out", and lambasted Trump's inability to condemn white supremacy in the first presidential debate.
While none of Claudia's claims that Trump's illness is more serious than is being publicly presented by the administration can be verified, her status as an insider has lent it more credence with White House watchers.
Her popularity on TikTok highlights the absence of both the Biden and Trump camps from the app, and the information gap this poses in terms of reaching younger voters.
Politicians "should definitely be on there because there's a lot of politics being discussed on that platform," Vincent Raynauld, an associate professor at Emerson College who researches the impact of social media on politics, told Business Insider's Connor Perrett. "There's a lot of energy, there's a lot of excitement, and people are willing to talk about politics and spread messages based on issues and candidates."