HOUSTON (AP) 鈥 The Republican 好色tv Committee voted Friday to install Donald Trump鈥檚 handpicked leadership team, completing his takeover of the national party as the former president closes in on a third straight presidential nomination.
Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican who has echoed Trump鈥檚 false theories of voter fraud, was elected the party鈥檚 new national chairman in a vote Friday morning in Houston. Lara Trump, the former president鈥檚 daughter-in-law, was voted in as co-chair.
Trump鈥檚 team is promising not to use the RNC to pay his mounting personal legal bills. But Trump and his lieutenants will have firm control of the party鈥檚 political and fundraising machinery with limited, if any, internal pushback.
鈥淭he RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,鈥 Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected.
Whatley will carry the top title, replacing longtime chair Ronna McDaniel after she fell out of favor with key figures in the former president鈥檚 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥 movement. But he will be surrounded by people closer to Trump.
Lara Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances.
She emphasized that shortly after she was voted in, taking time in her inaugural speech as co-chair to hold up a check for a $100,000 that she said had been contributed that day to the party. When asked by a reporter later, she declined to say who wrote the check.
The functional head of the RNC will be Chris LaCivita, who will assume the committee鈥檚 chief of staff role while maintaining his job as one of the Trump campaign鈥檚 top two advisers.
McDaniel was handpicked by Trump to lead the committee seven years ago but was forced out after Trump鈥檚 MAGA movement increasingly blamed her for losses over the last few years. She alluded to that in her goodbye speech Friday, telling the members that she worries most about 鈥渋nternal cohesion鈥 heading into the election.
鈥淲e have to stop the attacking other Republicans,鈥 she said. 鈥淚f we spend our time attacking each other, we guarantee the Democrats are going to win.鈥
She also told the party that it needs to engage independent and swing voters, warning: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 win if we only talk to each other.鈥
While McDaniel got a standing ovation after her goodbye, the new leadership eagerly embraced 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鈥檚 blessing, LaCivita is promising to enact sweeping changes and staffing moves at every level of the RNC to ensure it runs seamlessly as an extension of the Trump campaign.
In an interview Thursday, LaCivita sought to tamp down concerns from some RNC members that the already cash-strapped committee would help pay Trump鈥檚 legal bills. Trump faces 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 .
People speculating about the RNC paying for legal bills, LaCivita said, do so 鈥減urely on the basis of trying to hurt donors.鈥 Trump鈥檚 legal bills are instead being covered largely by Save America, a separate political entity.
鈥淭he fact of the matter is not a penny of the RNC鈥檚 money or, for that matter, the campaign鈥檚 money has gone or will go to pay legal fees,鈥 he said.
The RNC was paying some of Trump鈥檚 legal bills for New York cases that started while he was president, T , but McDaniel said in November 2022 that the RNC would stop paying once Trump became a candidate again and joined the 2024 presidential race.
When Trump announced his plans to replace the party鈥檚 leadership, it raised fresh questions about whether the committee would pay his bills. Those questions intensified after Lara Trump that she wasn鈥檛 familiar with the party鈥檚 rules about paying her father-in-law鈥檚 legal fees, but she thought the idea would get broad support among Republican voters.
Facing such mixed messages, some RNC members remain skeptical.
Republican committeeman Henry Barbour, of Mississippi, explicitly stating that RNC funds could not be used for Trump鈥檚 legal bills. Yet the resolution died when Barbour failed to earn the support of RNC members from at least 10 states.
鈥淧eople I鈥檝e talked to on the committee privately all agree that donor money needs to be devoted to winning elections, not legal fees,鈥 said Republican committeeman John Hammond, of Indiana. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure the committee would be glad to have some more assurance about that and clarification.鈥
The new leadership team is also expectedly to more fully embrace Trump鈥檚 focus on voter fraud and his debunked claims about the election he lost to President Joe Biden. Multiple court cases and Trump鈥檚 own Justice Department failed to reveal any evidence of significant voting irregularities.
Whatley, an attorney, has largely avoided using Trump鈥檚 characterization of Biden鈥檚 victory and that Biden 鈥渁bsolutely鈥 was legitimately elected and won the majority of the electoral college votes. But he said in in the weeks after the 2020 election that there was 鈥渕assive fraud.鈥 He has also made focusing on 鈥渆lection integrity鈥 a top priority for his state party in the years since.
In a letter announcing her candidacy for co-chair, Lara Trump wrote to members of the committee telling them she intends to focus on battleground states, getting out the vote in close races, to comb through the RNC鈥檚 finances, including all of its contracts and agreements and cut spending 鈥渢hat doesn鈥檛 directly go to winning elections.鈥
A key priority, she wrote, is working to ensure that the election is secure, something her father-in-law has made a chief focus.
In her speech Friday, Lara Trump declared: 鈥淚鈥檓 ready to get to work.鈥
鈥淭he goal on Nov. 5 is to win, as my father-in-law says, 鈥榖igly,鈥欌 she said.
In some ways, Trump鈥檚 GOP takeover represents a typical transition for major political parties when they shift from the primary to the general election phase of presidential elections. Candidates are typically given the keys to their national parties once they secure the presidential nomination. Biden, for example, effectively controls the Democratic 好色tv Committee.
Yet some privately worry that Trump is creating unnecessary drama and distraction for the party.
McDaniel is being replaced on Friday after Trump pressured her to resign. She was Trump鈥檚 hand-picked choice back in 2017. And he supported her reelection every two years as recently as last year.
But McDaniel increasingly drew the ire of MAGA leaders who blamed her for Republican losses in recent years. Other Republicans have blamed Trump, who remains broadly unpopular with Americans and vulnerable in particular with suburban and college-educated voters. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. adults if Trump were nominated for president, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll published in December.
