Former President Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, a senior RNC source confirmed to Fox News.
RNC staffers who work in the national party committee’s communications, data, and political departments are being asked to resign, including a handful of senior staff, sources say.
The move came hours after the Trump campaign on Monday took operational control over the RNC.
It comes as the new leadership aims to merge parts of the RNC with the Trump 2024 presidential campaign.
The former president’s picks to serve as RNC chair and co-chair – Trump ally and North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump – were unanimously confirmed on Friday by voice votes as the RNC met in general session in Houston, Texas.
Whatley, who was the RNC’s general counsel, succeeded longtime chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump picked to steer the national party committee after he won the White House in 2016. Her departure on Friday came after Trump earlier this year repeatedly urged changes at the committee – after lackluster fundraising last year and his opposition to the RNC’s presidential primary debates – which essentially pushed McDaniel out the door.
Trump also installed campaign adviser Chris LaCivita as RNC chief of staff. LaCivita, a longtime Republican strategist and RNC veteran, will continue to keep his role as one of the two top advisers steering Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
‘The RNC today. It’s not going to look the same next week. There’s obviously going to be changes,’ LaCivita told reporters on Friday. But he declined to get into details.
Friday’s RNC meeting came in the same week Trump swept 14 of the 15 GOP primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday – which moved him much closer to officially locking up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
It also comes just two days after Trump’s last rival for the nomination – former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – dropped out of the race.
Trump was expected to formally clinch the nomination on Tuesday, as four more states hold primaries and caucuses.