When historians chronicle the end of the Grand Old Party, they may mark 2024 as the turning point. Something called the Republican Party will surely exist for years to come, like a legacy brand subsumed by a competitor, but it appears to be coming to its end as a functional party. Instead, the Republican Party has become just another subsidiary of Donald Trump Inc.
Yesterday, Trump announced his effective takeover of the Republican National Committee, endorsing Michael Whatley, the chair of the North Carolina GOP, as chair; his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair; and one of his top campaign advisers, Chris LaCivita, as chief operating officer. LaCivita will reportedly also remain with the Trump presidential campaign, splitting time. The current chair of the party, Ronna McDaniel, is stepping down because of pressure from Trump.
Officially, these are only recommendations, but they seem nearly certain to become reality. Trump has long held de facto sway over the Republican National Committee, but these moves give him de jure control, too. The reorganization is especially striking because it comes in the midst of what is a moderately competitive presidential primary between Trump and Nikki Haley. Although no one really thinks Haley has much chance at beating Trump, he’s now asserting control over the body that oversees that primary, like a basketball coach appointing one of his assistant coaches as referee.
Trump’s approach is familiar from the way he ran his family business, the Trump Organization, and his White House. He stocks them with ultra-loyalists who will take hits for him and with family members who are questionably qualified. The effect is to efface any organizational identity or institutional structures, to ensure that the only thing that matters, and the only person who decides, is Trump.
The Trump Organization, unusually for a company of its size, was run with a small staff—a few longtime lieutenants, such as Allen Weisselberg, its longtime CFO, and now-estranged fixer Michael Cohen, and then Trump’s children Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka. This generation of Trumps has shown no particular genius for real-estate development; two of them were reportedly nearly charged with felonies after the collapse of one high-profile project. When Trump won the presidency, he nominally placed Eric in charge, but revealed his faith in his son’s abilities by continuing to be highly involved.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump appointed Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, to senior-adviser roles in the White House, barely skirting anti-nepotism rules for the executive branch, even though neither of them had any experience in government. But Trump erred, in his own view, by failing to appoint sufficiently sycophantic aides to other roles. Too many of his appointees were determined to defend the processes of government and the rule of law, infuriating him. He and his allies have vowed not to make the same mistakes again.
Now Trump is using the same playbook for the RNC. Whatley is a veteran party official, serving as general counsel, but his major selling point in Trump’s eyes is that he is a loyalist and faithfully backed Trump’s bogus claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Lara Trump has been a frequent surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail and television, but she has no experience at the RNC.
Signs of the GOP’s terminal illness have been present for years. Trump began what amounted to a hostile takeover in 2016, breezing through the Republican primary despite the opposition of most of the party establishment, in a demonstration of the weakness of party structures.
Long before he decided to depose her, McDaniel was his own pick for chair. Presidents always exercise great influence over their party committees, but the GOP was particularly supine. In 2020, the RNC didn’t even bother with one of the most fundamental roles of a political party—putting forth a platform. Instead, it resolved “that the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” Opposition to Trump within Congress and in state parties has also been slowly suffocated.
The full conquest of the RNC is good news for Trump personally. He can take advantage of the party’s resources, such as they still exist, and make it do what he wants, without the pesky problems of existing structures. But given what we know about the Trump Organization and the Trump White House, it is unlikely to be good news for the party.
In Manhattan this week, a judge is expected to rule in a civil fraud trial that could fine Trump hundreds of millions of dollars, cancel the Trump Organization’s license to operate in New York State, and strip it of marquee properties. Weisselberg is reportedly in talks to plead guilty to perjury in the case, atop a prior felony guilty plea. The Trump administration was, if anything, worse run. It was four years of constant chaos, punctuated by two separate impeachments and concluding with an attempt to steal a presidential election. (Trump is in court over that, too.) None of this is a good omen for the RNC’s future as a Trump subsidiary.
