United States: On Friday, Donald Trump ensured his control over the Republican National Committee when his daughter-in-law and another ally took top amid inner turmoil over whether the organization should assist with his legal expenses.
Houston Appointment
In Houston, RNC members have now appointed the North Carolina Republican Party head and Lara Trump as its chair and co-chair. These roles will be pivotal in driving voters and money toward the November 5th general election, as reported by Reuters.
This announcement follows President Trump’s success in Super Tuesday primaries, which led to the withdrawal of former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley from the race, leaving not much of a chance for anyone else as his party’s nominee to face off against the current president Joe Biden from the Democrat side.
“The goal on November 5th is to win, and as my father-in-law says ‘big,’” Lara Trump emphasized, saying that “every single penny of every dollar raised” will be committed to this goal.
RNC’s Financial Challenges
Therefore, the flip-flop brings about to the ceiling of Ronna McDaniel. Once the race began, McDaniel was a loud supporter of Trump, but with Trump’s weaker performance than in the previous midterm and the lesser-than-expected performance for Republicans in the 2022 congressional elections, she was under a lot of heat and was forced to quit.
A number of RNC members have been for the subcommittee to help with resolving Trump’s legal bills, which, together with the fines, have reached a total of hundreds of millions of dollars. On Friday speeches of Whatley and Lara there was no direct response to this issue, which made some contributors worried about writing checks as they are uncomfortable with it.
“Donors don’t want to pay some other rich guy’s legal bills. They want to help win elections because that’s the RNC’s job,” said Henry Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi who drafted a resolution on the funding issue. The resolution did not attract enough support to be voted on Friday.
Trump’s Family Influence
Trump’s choice to make the wife of Trump Jr., his younger adult son Eric, as second-in-command represents his seizure of control of a political institution whose main purpose is to help Republicans gain seats in all levels of the elections. The only other time when a member of a president’s or nominee’s family held a position of such power was that of President Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Maureen Reagan, serving as the co-chair of the RNC in the 1980s.
The leader of the new leadership team will next deal with the issue of money. Following its fundraising low in 2023 in a decade, the RNC had less than 9 million dollars in its account at the end of January, which was significantly less than 24 million dollars in the Democratic National Committee. Federal filings showed the numbers.
Lara Trump stated, “We have to raise a lot of money,” holding up a $100,000 check that she claimed was contributed on Friday.
Trump’s Legal Bills
Lara Trump caused discomfort months ago when she stated that Republicans have a “big interest” in paying the former president’s legal fees. By saying this, she did not take her opinion out of the question.
Legal expenses for Trump are projected to spike this year when he is grappling with 91 criminal counts in four cases and faces over $500 million in damages that have been awarded as a result of civil judgments in New York. On the same day, he settled with writer E. Jean Carroll by posting a $91.6 million bond to cover the defamation case verdict in her favor.
RNC Funding Assurance
After Friday’s vote, both the Presidential Campaign and RNC will be pooling their efforts and resources for fundraising. Those tasks will primarily be overseen by Chris LaCivita, a co-campaign manager who will also serve as the RNC COO.
LaCivita has confirmed many times that neither the Republican National Committee nor its funds will finance any legal fees, the same he told Reuters on Friday.
Oscar Brocke, an RNC member from Tennessee, claimed that the budget did not cover the expenses of the presidential legal bills down his own throat. Nonetheless, in spite of this, however, some of his constituents also want the RNC to help fund Trump, and such an issue might come up for debate if the fundraising was well above expectations.
The RNC Committeeman from Oregon, Solomon Yue has talked to up to twenty members of the organization who are of the same opinion as himself, the party should pay the bills for Trump’s legal problem, as reported by Reuters.
Two RNC donors who talked to Reuters anonymously said they wanted to wait to see the effects of the leadership changes before contributing funds. Both expressed concern about their money going to pay legal bills.