Donald Trump tightens grip on Republican Party with daughter-in-law Lara Trump taking key post

Donald Trump cemented his grip on the Republican National Committee on Friday after his daughter-in-law and another ally assumed top leadership posts amid a debate among members over whether the organisation should help pay his legal bills.

RNC members meeting in Houston voted to appoint North Carolina Republican Party head Michael Whatley and Lara Trump as chair and co-chair of the organisation, which will play a key role in marshaling voters and funds for the November 5 general election.

The move comes after Trump swept the Super Tuesday primary contests, prompting Nikki Haley to drop out of the Republican race and all but assuring the former US president will be the nominee and face off against President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“The goal on November 5 is to win, and as my father-in-law says ‘bigly’,” Lara Trump said, promising that “every single penny of every dollar raised” would go toward the goal of winning the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate for Republicans.

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What if Trump wins?

What if Trump wins?

The reshuffling sees Ronna McDaniel replaced atop the organisation. McDaniel faced criticism over fundraising and the party’s performance at the ballot box. During her tenure, Trump was defeated in 2020, and the party turned in a weaker-than-expected performance in the 2022 congressional midterm elections.

Some RNC members have called for the committee to help pay for Trump’s legal expenses, which along with penalties have ballooned to hundreds of millions of dollars. Neither Whatley or Lara Trump directly addressed the issue on Friday.

Trump’s push to have the wife of his younger adult son Eric as second-in-command symbolises his takeover of a political institution whose mission is to get Republicans elected up and down the ballot.

Not since President Ronald Reagan’s daughter Maureen Reagan was RNC co-chair in the 1980s has a family member of a president or nominee served in such a position of power.

Nikki Haley says Trump wants to use RNC as ‘piggy bank’ for his legal battles

One of the new leadership’s most pressing tasks will be money. After recording its lowest fundraising year in 2023 in a decade, the RNC had less than US$9 million in the bank at the end of January, a little more than a third of the Democratic National Committee’s US$24 million, federal filings show.

“We have to raise a lot of money,” Lara Trump said, showing a check for US$100,000 she said had been donated on Friday.

Like her father-in-law has done often in his speeches, she painted the coming election in moralistic terms.

“This isn’t just about right versus left, Republican versus Democrat,” she said. “It’s about good versus evil.”