Ronna McDaniel made it official Monday: Donald Trump—who is effectively forcing her out—will further remake the party in his own image as she steps down as chair of the Republican National Committee. “The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee, and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition,” McDaniel said in a statement to the New York Times. “I remain committed to winning back the White House and electing Republicans up and down the ballot in November.” The nominee, she added, would be able to “select a chair of their choosing.”
Trump—who looks more likely than ever to once again get the GOP nod after defeating his sole remaining rival, Nikki Haley, in her home state of South Carolina over the weekend—has already made clear he is looking to get a close ally installed in the role. He has endorsed Michael Whatley, the party leader in North Carolina, for the top post because he has “been with me from the beginning.” He has also said Lara Trump, the wife of his son Eric, should be co-chair. “Lara is an extremely talented communicator and is dedicated to all that MAGA stands for,” Trump said of his daughter-in-law earlier this month. “She has told me she wants to accept this challenge and would be GREAT!”
Both are unsurprising choices: Whatley is a tireless supporter of Trump’s baseless “stolen election” claims, and Lara Trump has argued that the RNC should “absolutely” pay her father-in-law’s mounting legal bills. “I think that is a big interest to people,” she said recently. Together, the two essentially promise to turn the RNC into an engine for Trump’s personal grifts and petty tyrannies. “The RNC MUST be a good partner in the presidential election,” Trump said this month.
Of course, the party apparatus had long appeased Trump. The RNC had contributed millions to help cover his legal bills until he officially declared his 2024 candidacy. And back in January, the RNC even considered declaring him the “presumptive nominee” despite Haley’s continued presence in the race. The party dropped the formal resolution, but McDaniel made the party’s position on the primary clear: Republicans “need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump,” she said at the time.
But Trump had grown frustrated with McDaniels. The party had a brutal fundraising year in 2023, and the former president felt the RNC wasn’t deferential enough to his campaign during the primary process—which he all but boycotted. By the beginning of February, he sealed her fate: “I think she did OK initially in the RNC,” he told Fox News. “I would say right now there will probably be some changes made.”
From there, it was only a matter of time before she stepped down. In her statement Monday, she said her resignation would be effective March 8, after Super Tuesday. In so doing, she will once again yield to Trump—who apparently convinced her to drop the “Romney” from her name and whose towering presence over the GOP helped the party lose three consecutive elections on her watch. The role, she said, was the “honor of a lifetime.”
