American politics is structured in such a way that it supports and promotes the two-party system. While it’s one of the only Democracies in the world that doesn’t have even the semblance of a third party, the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention have worked very hard to ensure that they are able to keep the power that they’ve managed to accrue over the decades and centuries since the founding of America.
The Establishment Follows the Money
Necessarily, this means that where the money and the popularity goes, the DNC and RNC go as well. The DNC has done a slightly better job of weeding out less popular or problematic candidates from their roster, and has a party that has supported them in that goal.
Unfortunately, the RNC doesn’t have that same luxury. The RNC has been held in a particular chokehold of political power for nearly a decade. Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy and ultimately won the presidency in 2016, the Republican establishment has been in relative limbo when it comes to him, through various scandals and challenges.
Trump is a Challenging Candidate
Trump himself has not made it easy for the RNC to support him. He lost his reelection campaign in 2020 by a significant margin, and in the years since, Trump has been a spectacle for the media. The former president has been indicted four times in four different jurisdictions, and is the constant source of both fodder and ire for the mainstream media.
Despite all of these facts, Trump still appears to have a chokehold on the party. Politicians who once called out Trump for his poor behavior or his alleged participation in the riot that took place on January 6 are now falling in line, given that he is the presumptive nominee to be the Republican candidate for President this fall.
Trump on a Rampage
Unfortunately for the RNC, Trump has not been thrilled with their lack of support. Trump has gone on a rampage in the last year against anyone and anything that he believes is not supportive of him and his ultimate goals, and the RNC has come under his crossfire because of that.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has gone out of his way to lambast the RNC. He has called the organization “RINOS” (Republicans in Name Only) and has claimed that they don’t support his reelection campaign. He has also publicly come out against RNC leadership in the past, including the former head of the organization, Ronna McDaniels.
Ronna McDaniels Resigning
Due to Trump’s lack of support – and perhaps as a stunning indictment of the direction that the Republican Party is heading ahead of the 2024 election – McDaniels announced last month that she would be stepping down as the head of the RNC to make way for new leadership. This followed an endorsement from Trump that a new batch of leaders was necessary to head up the RNC.
For many people, this type of comment would be a mere blip on the social radar. For Republicans, though, it’s a death sentence. Donald Trump has a chokehold on the Republican Party, and has single handedly made his word the law when it comes to what goes with the conservative leadership.
A Massive RNC Restructuring
McDaniel’s resignation went into effect in the past weeks, and since she left the party, the RNC has seen a massive restructuring in leadership. Reports have been released that the RNC laid off more than 60 employees in the pursuit of this alleged “restructuring.”
Of course, that’s coded language for installing Trump loyalists where establishment Republicans were before. The Trump campaign and the former RNC leadership have been working diligently on a plan in recent weeks that would allow the campaign to seamlessly merge with the RNC and pool all of their collective resources, despite the concerning nature of allowing Trump loyalists to take over the RNC.
Lara Trump Elected to Leadership
In pursuit of that goal, Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, was elected as co-chair of the RNC. Mcihael Whatley, a longtime Trump supporter and loyalist, was elected to the other chair, creating a tight appearance of Trump loyal leadership.
These changes all come in in spite of the fact that the RNC was never anti-Trump. Ronna McDaniels, the niece of Republican Senator Mitt Romney, was accused of being responsible for a series of funding failures, as well as the massive losses that the Republican party saw in the 2020 and 2022 elections. This is, of course, nonsensical as one person cannot be at fault for the entirety of the Republican party’s lacking.
The Future Goals of the RNC
In the aftermath of her election as co-chair, Lara Trump released a statement alleging the direction that she wanted to take the RNC. She confirmed that her focus is going to be, first and foremost, on getting her father-in-law reelected to the Presidential office this November.
She also stated that she wanted to help Republicans flip the senate back to Republican control, and work on expanding the slim House majority this fall. She didn’t explain how she was hoping to accomplish any of these major, existential goals, merely stating that they were her goals.
Assisting Trump With Legal Dues
In the past, Lara had also indicated that she would not be opposed to spending RNC resources in the pursuit of assisting Donald Trump with his various legal pursuits. Since being elected, she has expanded that ultimate goal, stating that the RNC will spend some of its resources on overseeing elections in the country.
“Now we have the first-ever election integrity division at the RNC,” she told Sean Hannity in an interview. “That means massive resources going to this one thing. If People out there, Sean, don’t feel like…that their vote counts, they don’t trust the system that we have, then we are no longer the country we once thought we were.”
Concerning Comments
Lara’s comments about funding Trump’s legal battles with establishment money are particularly concerning for those worried about dark money in politics. Since Lara made that comment, reports have come out about the amount of money from his political campaign and super PAC’s that Trump has dedicated to paying his legal dues.
A report regarding the Trump campaign was released in January of this year, revealing that the former president spent more than $50 million on legal fees in 2023, out of money that was donated to the various super PAC’s that fund his campaign. Along with potentially violating campaign finance law, this has led to serious concerns about Trump’s priorities as both a candidate and potential future president.
Comments from Republicans
Members of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party alike have widely criticized the actions of the RNC in the wake of the leadership restructuring. Adam Kinzinger, a former GOP representative from Illinois, stated that the RNC was becoming “Trump’s toilet.”
“The RNC, in deciding to become Trump’s toilet and slush fund, is going to do real damage to down ballot races,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “They deserve it for capitulating…how far they have fallen.”
And From Democrats
Democratic leadership has also released a statement regarding the RNC restructuring. Jaime Harrison, the chair of the DNC, said in an interview, “The RNC is down bad…they are in financial disarray, they are dealing with a mass purge of staffers just a few months before the election.”
“They’re taking out lines of credit, they can’t afford to spend money on their down ballot races but…they’re paying Trump’s legal bills. Go, Lara, go,” he concluded. This has been a common sentiment regarding the restructuring that has been echoed by multiple Democrats and political strategists, and it appears that public opinion is reacting deeply negatively to the new moves by the Trump team.
Subheading
Despite the negative press around the RNC restructuring and Trump’s legal issues, it doesn’t appear to be helping in Biden’s projected chances for reelection. Recent polls reveal that Biden and Trump, both presumptive nominees for their respective parties, are fairly neck-in-neck for the presidency.
The negative press could provide an opportunity for the DNC, though. They’ve been relying on Trump’s legal issues as a selling point as to why the former president should not also be the future president, but it’s only gone so far. Selling the Republican establishment as lost to Trump may ultimately be the story that will get Biden over the edge to reelection.
Time Before the Election
There are months to go ahead of the 2024 election, and the RNC has work to do to get their organization under control ahead of election day. Only time will tell whether Kinzinger’s comments about the RNC becoming a corrupt Trump pick are true, and Republicans should be watching the establishment carefully.
Trump is less than 40 delegates away from clinching the formal Republican nomination, regardless of what the RNC ultimately does. The fact that he has single handedly reformed the leadership of the party is a sign of how tight his grip is on Republicans, and it’s likely that that grip will only become stronger as the months continue on to election day this November.
