Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican National Committee is a shining example of his grift. After he handpicked its new chairs, including his eternally creepy daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the new leadership purged staffers—and they are now hiring up replacements. On Wednesday, NBC News reports that two of those new hires are lawyers who will focus on "election-related concerns"—that is, on Trump’s favorite conspiracy theories.
One of those lawyers might be a familiar name: Christina Bobb.
A former correspondent on the far-right One America News Network, Bobb was a major promoter of Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And she made herself more infamous after she certified to the FBI in 2022 that Trump was not hiding more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, only to have that claim fall apart after the FBI obtained a search warrant and discovered that Trump had quite literally littered the place with classified documents.
Her hiring coincides with the new RNC leadership’s decision to move the party's finance and digital teams to Palm Beach, Florida, where, according to a New York Times source, the teams will be "functionally fused into" Trump's own campaign. More than that, Lara Trump has pledged "every single penny" of the RNC's cash will now be spent on Trump alone.
All told, that may turn out to be bad news for downballot Republicans this year. It means less money the RNC can spend on helping congressional Republicans win races. It means less money to spend on boosting voter turnout and doing other organizational work. The RNC functionally becoming the Trump National Committee means that downballot Republicans shouldn’t expect to see much help unless it also benefits the Trump campaign. And that means getting rid of efforts like the party's minority outreach program, a casualty of the recent restructuring that, by most accounts, was indeed making inroads with Americans who weren't angry white racists.
Trump's current problems are simple. Due to multiple legal judgments, he must now come up with over a half billion dollars. And there's been rampant speculation as to whether he can actually come up with such a sum, "billionaire" or not.
Trump’s self-inflicted legal woes have cost an absolutely staggering $76 million in attorney fees over the past two years. But there’s a catch here. Trump himself isn’t footing the vast majority of that bill. It’s his campaign and other political fundraising organizations that have shelled out. After spending $50 million on Trump's legal bills last year alone, his campaign apparatus has taken on the appearance of a keep-Trump-out-of-jail effort first, and a presidential campaign second.
The RNC that Trump has now taken over is very close to broke, ending 2023 with only about $8 million in cash on hand after raising over $87 million across the year. But it still provides yet another path for Trump to pay his attorneys while he attempts to avoid financial ruin.
Trump isn’t just a grifter. He is a vampire. He spends his life attempting to squeeze people for whatever dimes he can, whether it be through sales of mail-order meat or bottled water or the right to live in large buildings with his name plastered across them in the largest possible letters. It's not enough for the RNC to be loyal to him, and it's not enough for the RNC to function as his personal campaign arm. He wants all the money he can get, and installing Walmart Ivanka as co-chair of the committee is the best way to ensure the RNC won't think twice about forking over even more cash for his bills.
And Republican voters? They seem just fine with it. They couldn't be a more willing group of suckers.
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