Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, has said she hopes to take over the Republican National Committee and steer its funds to paying off the former president's legal bills. But that plan is likely to make things worse for the struggling party, according to one columnist.
Trump has endorsed Eric Trump's wife, Lara, to co-run the RNC, and she has made it clear that she is 100% loyal to the ex-president and that she will "make sure that every penny is used properly." The problem with that is that the reason RNC fundraising is low in the first place is because of Trump's legal bills, according to Vanity Fair columnist Molly Jong-Fast's piece published by MSNBC.
Jong-Fast says Trump is using the slowed fundraising as a reason to give Ronna McDaniel the boot, but that she isn't the problem.
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"Trump world is using the last few months of anemic fundraising for the group as an excuse for ousting McDaniel," the columnist writes. "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 goes on to say the fall "saw a bad couple months for the RNC."
"In October, it raised $7.1 million to the Democratic National Committee’s $13.1 million. While raising a more robust $12 million in January, the group is still slightly panicked, according to reports," she wrote. "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.'"
She concludes by showing how it's unlikely Lara Trump will be able to solve Trump's, or the national party's, problems.
"Here’s the likely bad news for Lara Trump. She may think she can solve her father-in-law’s financial problems by taking over the RNC," the columnist writes. "But I’m not convinced that a relative neophyte is going to be able to do a better job raising money than the longest-serving RNC chair since the Civil War."