Former President Donald Trump’s plan to overhaul the Republican National Committee will culminate Friday.

The RNC is meeting in Houston, where officials are expected to select North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley as chairman and Lara Trump as co-chairwoman. The former president also pushed for veteran operatives Chris LaCivita and James Blair to take on senior positions at the RNC.

Trump’s goal to revamp the RNC appears to stem from his desire to align the organization closely with his campaign for reelection, in which he’s set to face President Joe Biden in a rematch in November. In pushing out Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who announced she’ll step down, Trump is also preparing to revitalize fundraising efforts. By appointing Trump’s inner circle at the RNC, he’s cementing his power over the party with leaders that support his claims of election fraud.

2024 campaign 

Trump all but clinched the title of the Republican presidential nominee after former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley dropped out of the race Wednesday after the former president swept Super Tuesday contests. Once LaCivita and Blair are confirmed, they’ll still act as advisers to Trump’s 2024 campaign, CNN reported. 

Despite no evidence of widespread election fraud, Trump has stuck to his falsehoods that he beat Biden in 2020, exacerbated during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The events following the last election remain in the spotlight heading into November. Without naming Trump, Biden accused the former president of burying the truth during his State of the Union speech Thursday evening. 

Trump’s endorsements serve to bolster his support base nationally with those who have stood by his allegations, such as Whatley, who has backed the former president’s claims of voter fraud following the 2020 election.

Fundraising efforts 

Despite the RNC having its worst fundraising year in almost a decade in 2023, it appears a majority of members are in support of helping Trump in offsetting legal expenses he’s incurred from four criminal cases and multiple civil cases. 

The move to push out McDaniel comes as the organization grapples with financial issues, including challenges in cutting large checks and experiencing a fallout in its small-dollar fundraising program, the Washington Post reported last year. 

The former president has a strong base of small-dollar donors himself, but his campaign is running an expensive playbook, and his legal bills are piling up. Tying himself to the RNC is one way to tap into a larger network of donors and help him close the gap Biden’s campaign has created in the race for cash.

Legal fees

Amid financial troubles, some RNC members have warned against paying Trump’s mounting legal bills, while Lara Trump thinks Republican voters would be more than open to the organization helping the former president.  

“We should spend our finite resources on political operations and actually winning elections, and paying any candidate’s legal fees, or frankly any other outside fees or expenses, is not the RNC’s job,” Henry Barbour, a national committeeman from Mississippi, told CNN in February. 

Support for helping the former president cover his legal bills doesn’t run all the way through RNC leadership — including the members he has just tapped. LaCivita said RNC money would not be used to pay Trump’s legal fees, repeating on Tuesday, “I’ve made it perfectly clear … we would not be paying legal bills.” 

While the RNC tends to be closely aligned with the campaign of the Republican presidential nominee, several unusual aspects of Trump’s campaign takeover of the organization worry some members. 

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Trump could isolate members of the party who want to restrict the RNC from spending money on the former president’s legal expenses. But a more pressing risk could be if the RNC undergoes significant leadership changes and fails to increase fundraising and gather more national support.

Trump once pushed for McDaniel as RNC chairwoman, who has extensive connections among GOP high-profile donors. Trump’s takeover will be a test to determine whether the problem within the organization was with the leadership or the overall messaging of the Republican Party.