As former president Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, gears up to potentially lead the Republican National Committee (RNC) following Ronna McDaniel's ouster, she's declared her confidence in believing Trump fans won't mind their donations being used to cover the MAGA hopeful's hundreds of millions of dollars in legal bills.
What the former president's daughter-in-law fails to realize, MSNBC political analyst and Vanity Fair special correspondent Molly Jong-Fast argues, is that her goal may not be so easy to achieve.
Jong-Fast writes:
The RNC isn’t the only fundraising organization associated with Trump that’s having trouble raising money, accordingto the Financial Times: 'Trump Pacs received contributions from fewer unique donors in the second half of 2023 than during the equivalent period in the 2020 campaign.' And perhaps even more meaningfully, Trump 'entered the 2024 election year with about 200,000 fewer donors than in the previous presidential campaign four years ago.'
It’s unclear if an RNC takeover will help Trump’s cash flow problems, but if Lara Trump ends up being the co-chair of the RNC, she will inherit a fundraising mess. The RNC needs money. Losing its longtime chair wouldn’t make fundraising easier. Lara Trump will need to make the case to old-school GOP donors that paying Trump’s legal fees will somehow win them back the Senate and the presidency. I’m not convinced that’s going to be an easy sell.
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The political analyst also notes:
Trump world is using the last few months of anemic fundraising for the group as an excuse for ousting McDaniel. But the problem of raising funds is not of her making. According to The Washington Post, some major donors have expressed concerns: 'These people want to win elections, not pay lawyers.'
Jong-Fast points to the fact the last few months of 2023 were "bad" financially for the committee, noting "In October, it raised $7.1 million to the Democratic National Committee’s $13.1 million." And after "raising a more robust $12 million in January, the group is still slightly panicked, according to reports. Sources mused to The Guardian that Nikki Haley dropping out would solve some of its cash crisis. But Haley isn’t the candidate with the millions of dollars in legal fees. In February, Forbes reported that the RNC faced a 'poor financial showing after it reported its lowest fundraising totals in 10 years.'"
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Jong-Fast's full op-ed is here.
