Former President Donald Trump‘s proposed changes to install three allies into leadership roles at the Republican National Committee has led to some consternation that the organization will become a front to pay off Trump’s extensive legal fees.

The former president endorsed North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley to replace Ronna McDaniel as chair of the RNC.

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He also tapped two members of his inner circle into high-level RNC roles: daughter-in-law Lara Trump, his as RNC co-chairwoman and co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita for committee chief operating officer.

While some committee members are unconcerned by the criticism that Trump could entice the RNC to cover his legal fees, other Republicans stressed that the changes do little to tamp down fears that the RNC is a Trump Organization by another name that could distract from the GOP taking back control of the White House and Congress from Democrats in November.

Richard Porter, a national committeeman from Illinois, pushed back against Trump’s detractors who fear paying his fees, claiming it is common for a presidential nominee to enmesh the campaign with the party’s national organization.

“I don’t see it that way,” Porter said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “Cleaving the party apparatus to its nominee’s campaign is a common occurrence — once it becomes clear who our nominee will be. This is true in both the Republican and Democrat parties, historically speaking. It’s not like the DNC is somehow independent of Biden’s campaign.”

Porter also defended Lara Trump against nepotism criticisms.

“She’s actually a great pick,” he said. “Lara brings star power, and she’s a good, effective, and experienced spokeswoman. She’s done a lot of fundraising, and she is a draw herself. Every event we do with her, we will attract more people and raise more money than if any current member of the RNC had that job instead.” 

The RNC has struggled to match the fundraising prowess of the Democratic National Committee. Federal Election Commission filings from 2023 showed the RNC faced its worst fundraising haul since 2013, with only $8 million in cash on hand after raising $87.2 million.

In contrast, the DNC raised $120 million in 2023 and had $21 million in cash on hand, a record figure sum for the organization.

Trump personally chose McDaniel to head the RNC in 2016 after he won the presidency, thanks in part to a win in Michigan, where she led the state GOP. But after tensions with Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien during Trump’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential run and the committee floundered in fundraising, McDaniel lost luster in the eyes of Trump despite her efforts to appease him.

McDaniel will likely step down sometime after the Feb. 24 GOP primary in South Carolina.

“This is Trump’s party, and Trump is taking this back to the way it used to be: The nominee is in complete control, and his people are running the show,” a former RNC adviser told the Bulwark’s Mark Caputo.

As Trump battles several court cases from the 91 felony charges he faces, his donors helped his two political action committees pay out over $50 million on legal fees in 2023. The former president will spend the rest of this year in court fighting against the various charges, which will drain his financial resources.

He already has been ordered to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll after losing a defamation case. A verdict over a $370 million civil fraud case in New York will come on Friday, further draining his coffers.

An RNC insider told the Washington Examiner that questions over what extent the RNC will help Trump should he become the presumptive nominee are expected. LaCivita is reportedly expected to sign off on which vendors the RNC will use to handle marketing and recommend budget operations along with Susie Wiles, Trump’s senior campaign adviser, for the committee and the former president. All told, it will be a $1 billion operation, according to Axios.

“Of course, this is a concern, but the reality is the RNC doesn’t have any money,” said the insider, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “I’m more concerned that there are whales out there, the kind who give seven-figure donations, who might donate to the RNC to support other Republican candidates on the ballot but would never give money to Trump.”

Lara Trump did not make matters better when she claimed that her primary concern was to use RNC money to reelect the former president.

“Every single penny will go to the No. 1 and the only job of the RNC — that is electing Donald J. Trump as president of the United States and saving this country,” she told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight on Tuesday. “We have no time to waste. We’ve got to get to work. We’ve got a lot of money to raise, and we need to ensure that every penny goes to those things that I just mentioned.”

Geoffrey Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the Niskanen Center and author of “Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party,” claimed the comments could underscore the RNC is running a more efficient fundraising system that focuses less on frivolous costs.

“There’s also a sense that it sounds like the RNC’s resources belong to Trump,” Kabaservice said. “So I think it’s at least an indication that she is not really politically all that well-trained and could get the RNC in trouble through just lack of experience. And I think that’s something that you see in a lot of state parties. The Trumpier the leader is the difficulties they encounter for all kinds of reasons.”

Should the RNC become “Trumpier” through the new leadership, that could escalate its diminishment, critics warn.

“The complete co-opting of the RNC by Trumpworld could further make the national party irrelevant as a fundraising vehicle, which is, if we’re being honest, the only reason the party has to exist in this age of super PACs and other dark-money funds,” the RNC insider said. “Why would anyone max out to the RNC these days, especially if they aren’t a Trumpist?”

A GOP strategist, granted anonymity to discuss delicate matters, echoed similar concerns that Trump will make the RNC irrelevant ahead of the crucial November elections.

“That’s already what he’s doing, and that is why they’ve had so much trouble fundraising because your average American doesn’t want to contribute to a party knowing that their money is solely going to go to pay off his legal problems,” the strategist said before pointing to other GOP organizations that will likely have to increase their own election efforts.

“This puts the pressure on the other campaign committees, the [National Republican Senatorial Committee] and the [National Republican Congressional Committee], to ensure that they are doing everything they can to put the Republican Party in a position of strength in both of our chambers of Congress,” the strategist said.

The RNC and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.

Amid the RNC takeover, Trump is still ostensibly contending with a primary challenge from former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Her campaign slammed Trump’s RNC endorsements when the news broke and claimed Haley’s plan for the RNC was to “blow it all up.” She blasted her rival again on Thursday over the legal drama that surrounds him.

“Donald Trump is in court today,” she wrote on X. “There will be a verdict on another case tomorrow. And he has a trial starting March 25. Meanwhile, he’s spending millions of campaign donations on legal fees. All of this chaos will only lead to more losses for Republicans up and down the ticket.”

“Donald Trump and the RNC lost in 2018, 2020, and 2022,” AnnMarie Graham-Barnes said. “Now Trump is using his presidential campaign to pay his legal bills, and the RNC is already effectively bankrupt. Republicans won’t beat Joe Biden and Democrats in November with a candidate who is spending more money on court cases than talking to voters.”

The GOP lost control of the House in 2018 and control of the Senate and White House in 2020. In 2022, the GOP managed to gain a narrow majority in the House but failed to win back the Senate, underperforming expectations in both chambers.

Republicans lost key races during last year’s off-year elections in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia. The party also lost the special election for New York’s 3rd Congressional District this week, a seat vacated after disgraced former Rep. George Santos was expelled from Congress last year.

“That’s largely because of Trump’s influence,” Kabaservice said. “And if you just wanted to win the elections, if that was your sole focus, then you’d have to say the Republican Party should be a big tent party because there are some districts where a super MAGA candidate cannot win. And it would be better to have a more establishment Republican in that role.”

But that argument has not helped Haley in her campaign against the former president. She trails him in South Carolina, her home state, by an average of more than 30 percentage points. Her uphill battle largely depends upon independents and Republicans vying for normalcy after Trump’s tenure.

Some establishment-leaning Republicans have privately expressed apprehension over the relative ease Trump will have in bending the RNC to his will, though few are willing to go on the record.

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Defenders of Trump are undeterred by the criticisms.

“If you speak to anyone on the RNC who doesn’t think this slate is a good idea, please ask them to call me,” said Porter, the Illinois committee member. “I am right about this.”