Trump officially takes over the Republican National Committee

HOUSTON — It’s official: Donald Trump is in charge of the GOP.

Two days after Nikki Haley dropped her presidential bid, the Republican National Committee used its spring meeting here to install a new leadership team hand-picked by the former president, a formal signal of his takeover of the national Republican Party.

The RNC’s membership selected North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley to serve as the party’s new chairman, and Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to serve as the co-chair in unanimous votes.

“He will work relentlessly to elect Donald J. Trump as our 47th president of the United States, flip the Senate, expand our majority in the House of Representatives and help us in our individual states,” said Ohio RNC member Jim Dickey, who nominated Whatley for chair.

The election came after a brief bit of private leadership jockeying between Whatley and South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick, who ultimately did not run for the RNC’s top job after Trump publicly endorsed Whatley.

“Our country and indeed the entire world can’t take four more years of Joe Biden and Democratic control,” Whatley said during his acceptance speech. “In less than eight months we will determine not only the fate of the US but the rest of the word.”

Whatley, who has served as the RNC’s general counsel, replaces Ronna McDaniel. She was Trump’s hand-picked party chair after he won the presidency in 2016, but she has come under fire from the party’s grassroots after the GOP had other disappointing elections in the Trump era, in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

McDaniel gave lengthy farewell remarks, at times fighting off tears as she thanked her family. She listed a series of accomplishments during her seven years as party chair.

“We