Of Course Trump Wants His Daughter-in-Law, Lara Trump—And a “Stop-the-Steal Guy”—To Run the RNC

In 2016, Donald Trump effectively became the leader of the Republican Party, a position he holds to this day despite the many alleged crimes and that one attempted coup. So it seemed like only a matter of time until one of his family members was literally running the Republican National Committee, and apparently that may be happening very soon.

In a statement released on Monday, Trump declared that he wants current North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley to replace Ronna McDaniel as the leader of the RNC, with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, serving as cochair. Lara’s qualifications for the job appear to be that (a) she regularly goes on TV and says completely ridiculous things about her father-in-law (like that he might win New York in November) and (b) she’s married to Eric Trump. (Eric is Trump’s third child and second-oldest son, and he inherited his intelligence from his father.) Whatley’s main qualification, according to The New York Times, is that he’s all in on the thoroughly debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen:

Mr. Trump likes Mr. Whatley for one overwhelming reason, according to people who have discussed him with the former president: He is “a stop-the-steal guy,” as one of the people described him. He endorses Mr. Trump’s false claims about mass voter fraud and Mr. Trump believes he did a good job delivering North Carolina, a 2020 swing state, to him.

Mr. Whatley has baselessly claimed that election security efforts from Republicans in North Carolina stopped Democrats from cheating. He is also currently the general counsel at the Republican National Committee and has endorsed efforts to develop new voting laws.

The leadership positions at the RNC are being discussed because Trump, who rules like a mob boss, recently decided that “changes” needed to be made at the organization. While he is not actually in charge of the RNC, his iron grip on the party means he might as well be; two people familiar with the matter told the Times that McDaniel has let Trump know she is planning to step down soon after the February 24 primary in South Carolina. And while the former guy can’t simply install his people in her place, his wishes are expected to be granted. As Politico notes, “The committee must hold a vote among its members…but that will likely be a formality, as the party members are almost certain to support the preferences of the candidate set to [be] the presidential nominee.”

In addition to backing Whatley and Lara Trump, the ex-president is expected to “tap Chris LaCivita to serve as RNC chief operating officer,” per Politico, which spoke to a GOP operative and also noted that LaCivita would still maintain his job as Trump’s co-campaign manager. In case it was unclear what is going on here.