Lara Trump Reveals Plans to Spend 'Massive Resources' at RNC

Lara Trump has outlined plans to spend "massive resources" at the Republic National Committee (RNC).

Speaking to Fox News' Sean Hannity, Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, who was last week elected as co-chair of the GOP governing body, said she was creating an "election integrity division" in the committee to oversee elections across the country.

The Context

Changes are afoot at the RNC after the former president's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was elected as co-chair on Friday alongside longtime Trump supporter Michael Whatley.

The changes came after Ronna McDaniel, the niece of Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who was backed by former President Donald Trump to lead the RNC in 2017, resigned after being blamed for a series of funding issues. She was also criticized for the Republicans losing multiple elections since 2020.

Since then, according to Politico, which cited two unnamed people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC, more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments are being asked to resign.

Newsweek was not able to verify this independently and contacted an RNC representative by email to comment on this story.

Meanwhile, MAGA figures have long been vocal about the idea that elections are not being carried out fairly in the U.S. Donald Trump, for one, is facing two indictments regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, while other figures like failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake have challenged voting machines in failed lawsuits.

What We Know

Speaking to Hannity, Lara Trump revealed how the RNC intends to pivot its resources.

"Now we have the first-ever election integrity division at the RNC," she said. "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. We will have trained poll watchers, poll observers, poll workers, people in tabulation centers all across this country."

She then called for people to volunteer as poll watchers and lawyers to support the RNC.

Views

By endorsing Lara Trump and Whatley, Donald Trump is making the RNC "a Trumpist party," Scott Lucas, a professor in international politics at University College Dublin, told Newsweek.

By forcing out McDaniel, who "had been someone who carried water for Trump for years," he continued, Trump is showing "an attempt to create a Republican Party which does not function as a political party but as a machine for one man, Donald Trump."

The Republican Party is now being run "as an organized crime family," he concluded.

What's Next?

The RNC's first major challenge under its new leadership will be November's presidential election in which Donald Trump will face Democratic incumbent Joe Biden at the polls.

Polls indicate that support for the candidates is split fairly evenly.

Update 03/13/24, 4:00 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.