Lara Trump to resign as RNC co-chair

“Serving as the @GOP co-chair throughout the course of the most consequential election in American history has truly been the honor of my life,” Trump posted on her X account. “At the RNC, we had three distinct goals: 1) surpass all fundraising records, 2) build the largest army of lawyers and poll watchers to ensure election integrity and, 3) turn out millions of Americans and low prepencity [sic] voters during early voting.”

“We accomplished all three,” Trump said. “The job I came to do is now complete and I intend to formally step down from the RNC at our next meeting.”

Trump and Michael Whatley, former head of the North Carolina Republican Party, took over as RNC co-chairs in March, replacing a beleaguered Ronna McDaniel, who headed the RNC for eight years. The duo implemented many significant policy changes in the RNC to ensure Donald Trump was victorious in the 2024 presidential election. One of the main objectives was to revamp the RNC “get out the vote” efforts on the ground, an operation that many claimed grew stagnant under McDaniel’s watch. 

Trump and Whatley also focused on increasing GOP fundraising, which also lagged in McDaniel’s final months. In February, the last full month McDaniel was in charge of the RNC, the organization hauled in only $10.6 million in donations. Those numbers increased to $65.6 million by March and to $76 million in April, the Associated Press reported.

Under Trump’s leadership with Whatley, Republicans defied expectations and many political polls in the 2024 election. Donald Trump was victorious over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republicans won the majority in the Senate, and the GOP remained in control of the House of Representatives. When McDaniel was replaced in February 2024, many polls showed Trump trailing Biden, the Democratic nominee at the time. 

After Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the nominee, the President-elect’s daughter-in-law was one of the first people to predict that the hype surrounding Harris’s candidacy would fade out quickly. She called the enthusiasm over the vice president’s campaign as “smoke in mirrors.”

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“This whole thing has been smoke and mirrors, and it’s the same folks in the mainstream media, by the way,” she told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in August. “I will remind everyone who a few months ago, were suggesting that maybe Joe Biden wanted to choose a new running mate. Maybe Kamala Harris was a bit of a drag on the ticket. Now, we are all supposed to believe she is this political genius. You cannot believe what you are seeing out there.”

Trump’s decision to step down as co-chair despite a successful first year comes amid rampant speculation that Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis could appoint her to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was nominated and expected to be approved for secretary of state in the Trump administration.