New R.N.C. Chair Declares ‘a United Front’ With Trump After Sweeping Changes

Michael Whatley, an ally of Donald J. Trump who took over the Republican National Committee last week, celebrated a series of major changes at the committee in a memo on Thursday and declared that the party would be “a united operation, and a united front” with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Whatley was unanimously elected on Friday as the committee’s chair, along with Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, as his co-chair. A whirlwind of changes soon followed, remaking much of the party apparatus from top to bottom.

On Monday, the new leadership team gutted the committee, severing ties with more than 60 officials, including senior staff members. On Tuesday, Christina Bobb, a self-described 2020 election denier and conspiracy theorist on Mr. Trump’s legal team, said she was joining as senior counsel for election integrity.

“I am very pleased to say that my first week as the chairman of the Republican National Committee has been a great week,” Mr. Whatley began the memo, which was sent out to the membership of the R.N.C., and obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Whatley also announced that the R.N.C. “is merging operations with the Trump campaign,” adding that James Blair, a Trump campaign aide, would wear two hats, as the political director for both the committee and the Trump campaign.

That announcement formalized a merger that had been playing out since Monday, when it was reported that much of the party’s operations would be relocated to Palm Beach, Fla., the base of operations for the Trump campaign.