Sources: RNC Chair Will Resign

Ronna McDaniel has informed Trump of her plans, sources say
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2024 3:45 PM CST
Updated Feb 6, 2024 8:38 PM CST
Trump Suggests Changes Atop RNC
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel speaks before a GOP presidential primary debate in November in Miami.   (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
UPDATE Feb 6, 2024 8:38 PM CST

Sources tell the New York Times that Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, plans to step down after South Carolina's February 24 primary. The sources say McDaniel has informed Donald Trump, who recently expressed displeasure with the job she's doing and said "changes" were likely. The AP's sources, however, say McDaniel's decision is not final yet, but that she made the offer to Trump and both agreed to make a final decision after South Carolina. Trump is expected to attempt to replace her with Michael Whatley, the chair of North Carolina's Republican Party as well as the RNC's general counsel, who supports Trump's false allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Whatley must be elected to the position, however. Sources tell CNN Trump and McDaniel met at Mar-a-Lago for more than two hours Tuesday to discuss the RNC's direction.

Feb 4, 2024 3:45 PM CST

Donald Trump made clear Sunday that he's not thrilled with the chair of the Republican National Committee, casting Ronna McDaniel's job performance as in decline. "I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me. I think she did OK, initially in the RNC," he said, per NBC News. "I would say right now there'll probably be some changes made." Trump made the assessment in response to a question—"How's Ronna McDaniel doing?"—from Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. As recently as October, Trump had said McDaniel was doing a "fantastic job" in the role.

Bartiromo asked the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination about Democrats outdoing his party on fundraising, per the Hill. "I have a lot of money," Trump answered, before adding: "And the money that they get, people are not looking at the RNC. They want—they want changes. I—you have to understand, I have nothing to do with the RNC. I don't—I'm separate." In hindsight, one McDaniel misstep might have occurred as Trump was leaving the White House in 2021, per the New York Times, when she asked him if he might consider running in 2024 as a third-party candidate—instead of as a Republican.

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McDaniel won a fourth term in a landslide in January 2023. That term ends after this year's election, but she's expressed willingness in private to leave early if that was the nominee's decision. McDaniel's future as chair was a frequent subject of discussion at the committee's winter meeting in Las Vegas last week, per the Times, as was how Trump might try to make his mark on the leadership and what it would all mean for the party's cash crunch. (More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)

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