Lara Trump's Plans for the GOP Could Spectacularly Backfire

Lara Trump's assertion that Republicans who do not like her father-in-law Donald Trump should leave the party could backfire, according to an expert.

The former president has endorsed his daughter-in-law as the next co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). The incumbent chair, Ronna McDaniel, announced last month that she was stepping down from the role after seven years, with her resignation expected to take effect on Friday. Trump has also endorsed Michael Whatley, the North Carolina Republican Party chairman, as the next RNC chair.

Since being endorsed, Lara Trump has made a number of interventions in party politics, including by claiming Republicans would pay for the former president's legal bills, and that every penny the RNC has will go on electing him, if members vote her in as the next co-chair.

And on Wednesday, she told Real America's Voice that people who don't support Donald Trump are "welcome to leave" the party.

"Anyone who is not on board with seeing Donald Trump as the 47th president, an America-loving patriot all the way down the ticket being supported by the RNC, is welcome to leave because we are not playing games and we have no time to waste, so we have to ensure that every single penny of every dollar donated goes to the causes people care about," she told the network.

"That's part of the reason that I think I'm such a good fit for this. There's no one more loyal to Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement than this person you're looking at right here, than me."

However, a number of moderate Republicans have indicated they would never vote for Donald Trump—meaning that if Lara Trump alienates them, the RNC could lose out on some of its funding and membership.

According to AP VoteCast surveys, two in 10 Iowa voters, one-third of New Hampshire voters, and one-quarter of South Carolina voters would not vote for Trump in November's presidential elections. The surveys were of 1,597 Republican caucus voters in Iowa, 1,989 New Hampshire voters who took part in the Republican primary and 2,466 Republican primary voters in South Carolina.

An expert told Newsweek that Lara Trump was therefore suggesting a "highly counterintuitive" approach.

Newsweek contacted the RNC by email to comment on this story.

Todd Landman, professor of political science in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, in the U.K., told Newsweek: "The results of the primaries thus far show that Biden has larger margins over his opponents, but also a sizeable proportion of 'uncommitted' protest votes, while Trump's margins over [Nikki] Haley are smaller, where she is capturing a blend of independents and disenchanted Republican voters.

"The RNC should be concentrating on winning swing voters, independents, and disenchanted voters. To suggest that if voters do not like Trump then vote for someone else appears highly counterintuitive, since Trump now needs to broaden his appeal, not reduce it.

"His dominance of the GOP primaries will reinvigorate some donors and thus add to his campaign coffers, but setting out a stark 'take him or leave him' strategy without changing the message could backfire in securing enough votes in the November elections."

Meanwhile, speaking to Newsweek previously, Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at University College Dublin in Ireland, warned of division in the Republican Party.

He said: "A lot of Republican members, a lot of Republican donors, are very unsettled about Donald Trump, they're very unsettled about his legal problems, they're very unsettled because he's unpredictable, they're very unsettled because of the damage that he can cause on domestic issues and on foreign policy."