HOUSTON — The Republican National Committee voted on Friday to choose Donald Trump’s selected leadership team, finalizing his dominance of the national party as the former president moves closer to a potential third consecutive presidential nomination.
Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican who has echoed Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud, was chosen as the party’s new national chairman in Houston on Friday. Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, was elected as co-chair.
Trump’s team has pledged not to use the RNC to cover his increasing personal legal expenses. However, Trump and his supporters will have strong influence over the party’s political and fundraising operations with minimal, if any, internal resistance.
“The RNC will lead a movement that will tirelessly work every day to elect our candidate, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,” Whatley told RNC members in a speech after his election.
Whatley will assume the top position, replacing longtime chair Ronna McDaniel after falling out of favor with key figures in the former president’s “Make America Great Again” movement. However, he will be surrounded by individuals closer to Trump.
Lara Trump is expected to primarily focus on fundraising and media appearances.
Shortly after being elected, she emphasized this in her first speech as co-chair by displaying a $100,000 check that she claimed was contributed to the party that day. When later asked by a reporter, she refused to reveal the donor.
The functional head of the RNC will be Chris LaCivita, who will take on the role of chief of staff for the committee while also maintaining his position as one of the top two advisers for the Trump campaign.
McDaniel was chosen by Trump to lead the committee seven years ago but was ousted as the Trump MAGA movement increasingly held her responsible for defeats over the past few years. She hinted at this in her farewell speech on Friday, expressing concern about the “internal cohesion” leading up to the election.
“We have to stop attacking other Republicans,” she said. “If we spend our time attacking each other, we guarantee the Democrats are going to win.”
She also advised the party to engage with independent and swing voters, cautioning: “We don’t win if we only talk to each other.”
While McDaniel received a standing ovation after her farewell, the new leadership eagerly welcomed the change, and Lara Trump, accompanied by her husband, Eric Trump, was greeted like a celebrity, with members lining up to take photos with her.
With Trump’s approval, LaCivita is pledging to make extensive changes and personnel moves at every level of the RNC to ensure it operates smoothly as an extension of the Trump campaign.
In an interview on Thursday, LaCivita sought to address concerns from some RNC members that the already financially strained committee would assist in covering Trump’s legal expenses. Trump is facing four criminal indictments and a total of 91 counts, as well as a $355 million civil fraud judgment, which he is appealing. His affiliated Save America political action committee has spent $76 million over the past two years on lawyers.
People are guessing about whether the RNC is paying for Trump's legal bills, LaCivita said, solely to harm donors. Instead, Trump's legal bills are mainly being paid by Save America, a different political organization.
He said that not a single cent from the RNC's or the campaign's money has been or will be used to pay legal fees.
The RNC was covering some of Trump's legal expenses for New York cases that began while he was president, as reported by The Washington Post, but McDaniel stated in November 2022 that the RNC would stop paying once Trump officially became a candidate again and entered the 2024 presidential race.
When Trump announced his plans to replace the party’s leadership, it brought up new questions about whether the committee would cover his bills. These questions became more intense after Lara Trump mentioned last month that she wasn’t familiar with the party's rules about paying her father-in-law’s legal fees, but she believed that the idea would have widespread support among Republican voters.
In the face of such conflicting messages, some RNC members remain doubtful.
Republican committeeman Henry Barbour from Mississippi suggested a non-binding resolution explicitly stating that RNC funds could not be used for Trump’s legal bills. However, the resolution failed to gain the support of RNC members from at least 10 states and was not passed.
Republican committeeman John Hammond from Indiana mentioned, “People I’ve talked to on the committee privately all agree that donor money needs to be devoted to winning elections, not legal fees.” He added, “I’m sure the committee would be glad to have some more assurance about that and clarification.”
The new leadership team is anticipated to fully embrace Trump’s focus on voter fraud and his false claims about the election he lost to President Joe Biden. Multiple court cases and Trump’s own Justice Department failed to reveal any evidence of significant voting irregularities.
Whatley, an attorney, has largely steered clear of using Trump’s description of Biden’s victory and stated in one 2021 interview that Biden was “absolutely” legitimately elected and won the majority of the electoral college votes. However, he mentioned in another interview after the 2020 election that there was “massive fraud.” He has also prioritized focusing on “election integrity” for his state party in the years since.
In a letter announcing her run for co-chair, Lara Trump wrote to committee members explaining that she plans to center on battleground states, boosting voter turnout in close races, reviewing the RNC’s finances, including all contracts and agreements, and cutting spending “that doesn’t directly contribute to winning elections.”
A crucial priority, she wrote, is working to ensure that the election is secure, which is a primary focus for her father-in-law.
In her speech on Friday, Lara Trump stated: “I’m ready to get to work.”
“The goal on Nov. 5 is to win, as my father-in-law says, ‘bigly,’” she said.
In some ways, Trump’s GOP takeover is a typical transition for major political parties as they move from the primary to the general election phase of presidential elections. Candidates usually take charge of their national parties once they secure the presidential nomination. For example, Biden effectively controls the Democratic National Committee.
However, some people are concerned in private that Trump is causing unnecessary commotion and diversion for the party.
McDaniel is set to be replaced on Friday following pressure from Trump to step down. She was chosen by Trump in 2017 and he endorsed her re-election annually, up until last year.
However, McDaniel started to receive strong criticism from MAGA leaders who held her responsible for Republican defeats in recent years. Other Republicans have blamed Trump, who is generally unpopular with Americans and particularly vulnerable among suburban and college-educated voters. According to a December poll by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs, 58% of U.S. adults would be dissatisfied if Trump were selected as a presidential nominee.