Meet the Other Trump Who’s About to Lead the GOP

HOUSTON—Donald Trump was on his campaign plane during his first run for the White House when he noticed a woman on Fox News vigorously defending him. It took him a few moments to realize, with shock, that it was his daughter-in-law.

The former president still brings up the story almost eight years after beating Democrat Hillary Clinton and kicking down the door of American politics, while remaking the Republican Party in his own image and style.

“He always tells me that I’m a secret weapon," Lara Trump, 41 years old, said in an interview. “We really connected over politics after that and it became something I’ve immersed myself in."

Lara Trump is many things: wife of Eric Trump; a mother of two; a fitness fiend; a Tom Petty cover vocalist; a children’s book author; and a former “Inside Edition" producer. Now she is also a target for the minority of Republicans who worry her father-in-law is too dominant of a force within the party.

Later today at a meeting in Houston, she is expected to take on a bigger and more visible role supporting Donald Trump when she is elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee. She will immediately face the challenge of helping raise hundreds of millions of dollars as the party and Trump campaign contend with an enormous cash deficit with President Biden and the Democratic National Committee.

Donald Trump, now unchallenged for the GOP nomination, is swiftly assuming control of the RNC, as party nominees typically do. He is pushing for Lara Trump and Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina GOP and RNC general counsel, to take the top two jobs running the committee. The move has created waves and ignited some complaints about nepotism.

“I don’t think anyone’s surprised to see