It took a few days, but Donald Trump has erased the last idea that the Republican Party exists as anything other than an extension of his will. As expected, Trump has endorsed Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, to lead the Republican National Committee. In a more surprising move, Trump has also named his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as his pick for co-chair of the party.
The fact that Trump can dictate RNC leadership and put his daughter-in-law in place as co-chair shows that the RNC is simply a shell. But it’s been that way for years. The platform of the Republican Party since 2020 entirely consists of expressing enthusiasm about Trump’s “America-first agenda” and a promise to re-up their oath to Trump when the platform committee fruitlessly gathers again in 2024.
There’s no doubt that Trump’s selections will become the new leadership of the party. Nor is there any doubt that the RNC is now, more than ever, merely an extension of the Trump campaign. Sorry, other Republicans, go find your own party. This one is taken.
Lara Trump’s credentials for being co-chair of the party are about what you would expect from someone who has spent a decade in the griftiest family in griftdom. She’s been on the receiving end of campaign money funneled through Brad Parscale, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign. She helped fundraise for far-right conspiracy theorist Lara Loomer’s 2020 congressional bid. And she was one of the speakers on at the pre-insurrection rally on Jan. 6 where she declared, “We are in this fight to the bitter end.”
She was also involved with a charity supposedly meant to rescue dogs that funneled almost $2 million into Trump properties. That’s not quite as bad as using charity funds to buy giant self-portraits, but it’s still worth noting in a family that’s also been forced to pay out $2 million for misusing charities.
Whether any of this means that Lara Trump has the capacity to raise funds—which is the heart of her potential RNC job—is unclear. She may be a fine surrogate for spreading Donald Trump’s threats. But she doesn’t seem to have any other skills. And she may not need them.
As bad as all this sounds, this isn’t the first time the RNC has been so deeply in the pocket of one man. Then-President Ronald Reagan’s daughter took the co-chair slot in 1987. Nepotism. It’s what Republicans mean when they say “family values.”
Whatley seems to have earned Trump’s attention for his willingness to repeat lies about the 2020 election. Whatley claimed that Democratic cities had engaged in “massive fraud.” Despite an utter lack of evidence, Whatley claimed, “We know that it took place in places like Milwaukee and Detroit and Philadelphia.” That sort of persistent lying, undaunted by being caught, is very, very Trump.
Trump specifically mentioned Whatley’s support for “election integrity” in supporting him for the top spot. However, it might not be the Big Lie support alone that earned Whatley the nod.
Whatley has his own little scandal back in North Carolina. The election for party chairman requires that party members be on the floor of the convention to cast their votes. However, Whatley won after North Carolina party members cast votes on a new purpose-built app, making it possible for them to vote from anywhere.
A man who both supports the Big Lie and who allegedly cheated his way to his own election victory seems like an irresistible lure for Trump. Don’t be surprised if Republicans suddenly begin endorsing having everyone vote by app.
When Whatley and Lara Trump no doubt take their seats, the fusion of the Republican Party and the Trump campaign will be complete—no more pretense that the party exists for any reason other than promoting one man.
What this means for other Republican candidates is hard to tell. Will the RNC even remember anyone else is running? Considering that it was serious cash-flow problems and nearly empty coffers that made outgoing Chair Ronna McDaniel so vulnerable in the first place, it’s unclear whether there will be any time, attention, or money for anyone other than Trump.
Trump’s ever-tighter grip on the party certainly also means that any candidate who falls out of his favor can expect the RNC to abandon them immediately. Trump's miserable track record at selecting candidates, with his selections based on their loyalty to him rather than their odds of winning and disregarding how well they fit the district or state where they were running, has made for some big Republican losses.
Expect more of that. The RNC will soon be nothing more than another Trump surrogate run by Trump surrogates. And their job will be to police Republican candidates for any sign of disloyalty to Trump.
Which is, without a doubt, good news for Democrats.
Republicans demanded border security, worked on a compromise deal with Democrats, and now want to blow the whole thing up. Biden is promising to remind Americans every day that the Republican Party is at fault for the lack of solutions to the problems they claim are most important.
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