Kellyanne Conway talks with reporters as she arrives at Trump Tower, Saturday, Nov. 12, in New York. | AP Photo Conway: Trump will drain swamp — but retain D.C. insiders

Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday morning that “the gravy train is about to have its wheels blown off” when the Manhattan billionaire assumes the presidency in January, and that shakeup will happen regardless of who fills some of the key roles in his administration.

The president-elect built his campaign around his outsider status, pledging to “drain the swamp” in Washington of the politicians and lobbyists who he railed against throughout the race. But his transition team includes familiar political faces like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), along with a collection of lobbyists. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, hardly a Washington outsider, is reported to be at or near the top of the list of candidates to be Trump’s chief of staff.


Conway said Trump will stay true to his swamp-draining campaign promises, even if his transition has thus far taken a more traditional Washington form.

“Look, these are people who are talented and have done this before. You can't just appoint novices, you have to have people who know what they're doing. But at the same time, moving forward, this is an administration that's going to run very differently than typical Washington,” Conway told host Chris Wallace during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “Finally, the voters got what they wanted, what they've been begging for for 30 years, which is give us the opportunity, give us a person who actually represents the outsider, non-Washington, business-experienced type of profile, somebody who goes to Washington owing nobody anything.”

Asked when the public could expect an announcement on who will be Trump’s chief of staff, Conway reiterated that a decision is “imminent” but would not commit to a specific timetable. Stephen Bannon, the combative Breitbart chairman and Trump campaign CEO, is the other name rumored to be under consideration for the chief of staff job, and who the president-elect ultimately selects would send a clear signal about the type of administration he intends to run.

Conway said both Priebus and Bannon were essential to Trump’s win and that “it tells you a great deal about President Trump that both of those men are thought to have very important roles in his administration, very senior roles, and that regardless of title that is absolutely what's going to happen.”

“The gravy train is about to have its wheels blown off and its engine completely ripped from its bearings because there is just no reason to keep this consultant-lobbyist axis at such — a-x-i-s — at such a level where people feel like their interests are not being served,” she said, pausing to clarify that she had said axis, not access. “Part of the rigged, corrupt system that he was giving voice to so often was the one we heard from voters. They don't appreciate all the organs and adjuncts of Washington, D.C., working against them. This is an administration for the forgotten man and the forgotten woman.

"Nobody thinks of lobbyists and consultants as the forgotten man or forgotten woman.”