Anita Dunn’s influence is felt every day in the White House, even if most people have never heard of her.
A Democratic messaging guru whose career dates to the Carter administration, Dunn helped craft Biden catchphrases including “MAGA Republicans,” “Bidenomics,” and now “MAGAnomics.” She’s also no stranger to controversy.
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“Bidenomics is rooted in the simple idea that we need to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up—not the top down,” reads a memo Dunn co-authored when the White House began promoting the term in June. “Implementing that economic vision and plan—and decisively turning the page on the era of trickle-down economics—has been the defining project of the Biden presidency.”
Dunn, 65, has been described as Biden’s “brawler in chief” for her aggressive messaging tactics, yet she also stumbles into headlines for other reasons.
Most recently, NPR reported that her political consulting firm, SKDK (the “D” stands for Dunn), advised both sides in an Illinois harassment case at the height of the #MeToo movement.
Dunn provided assistance to powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2018 and 2019, netting SKDK more than $200,000, the outlet reported. Madigan was also leader of the state Democratic Party at the time and was being sued by a former employee of his political committees who alleged that he retaliated against her for reporting harassment by her direct supervisor.
The employee, Alaina Hampton, also received support from Dunn’s firm via its partnership with an anti-harassment charity called the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. Dunn was working for Madigan specifically to combat the allegations stemming from Hampton’s lawsuit.
Hampton was not aware at the time and expressed outrage when she found out.
“I don’t know Anita Dunn, and I hope I never will,” Hampton told NPR. “But I would question her on her values and integrity, and I would ask her how she can credibly claim her commitment to women’s rights and issues.”
SKDK called the incident an “error,” and Dunn referred NPR back to the firm when contacted.
The White House did not respond to questions about the controversy from the Washington Examiner.
It’s the latest incident involving Dunn but far from the first. She raised eyebrows in 2017 when it was revealed that Dunn had informally advised film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was later convicted as a sex offender.
More recently, Dunn caught the attention of ethics experts for a pair of short-term gigs in the Biden White House. She did two terms as a “special government employee,” making just below the $132,552 salary threshold for disclosure requirements, which allowed her to keep her list of SKDK clients private along with a substantial asset portfolio of at least $16.8 million.
Dunn was finally hired full time in May 2022 yet didn’t disclose her assets until August and didn’t finish the required process of divesting her holdings until November. Ethics attorneys said the moves were technically compliant but raised serious questions.
“It may be legal, but the fact that there’s some nuanced technical legal explanation … does not make the public feel a whole lot better when somebody has a financial interest in the government policies they’re influencing and shaping,” Walter Shaub, director of the Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama, told the Washington Examiner last year. He later described Dunn’s divestiture process as outrageously slow.
She is now paid the White House maximum salary of $180,000.
Dunn has known Biden since the 1980s and worked closely with him beginning in 2008 alongside Obama. Dunn took a leading role in Biden’s 2020 campaign following his disappointing fourth-place finish in the Iowa Democratic caucus and has been with him ever since, save for a few intervals.
A November 2020 profile of Dunn in the Atlantic described her as a kind of Biden gatekeeper.
“Keeping track of who crosses Biden — staff, reporters, politicians — is part of what she does,” it reads. “She watches. She listens. She remembers. She is completely comfortable with giving a firm no.”
Dunn told the outlet that Biden likes to say he’s the only Irishman who doesn’t carry a grudge and that “I’m not Irish, but I will carry his grudges.”
At least 10 SKDK alums now work in the Biden White House, and Dunn’s husband, Bob Bauer, is Biden’s personal attorney in the classified documents scandal.
Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer under George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007, said Dunn needs to make sure she’s steering clear of working in any of the same areas as her husband. He also takes issue with some of the messaging strategies Dunn has crafted, such as “MAGA Republicans” and “MAGAnomics.”
“‘MAGA’ is a campaign slogan used to win elections, and I don’t think either side, when they have the White House, should be referring to MAGA in their official communications,” he said.
Biden began using the term “ultra-MAGA Republicans” last summer, and then-press secretary Jen Psaki initially claimed it was the “president’s phrase.” But ultra-MAGA was later revealed to be the result of a six-month study led by Dunn.
Current press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was later found in violation of the Hatch Act for using the term. Biden, as an elected official, is free to make political statements.
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Vice President Kamala Harris is also free of any Hatch Act restrictions and has been speaking more aggressively since Dunn was tasked with remaking her image in June. Soon after, Harris began making more aggressive statements defending her boss in public appearances.
“Bidenomics is working! It’s working!” she said in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in early August. “It’s a term we’re very proud of, I must tell you.”
