On their first day in charge at the Republican National Committee, Trump’s hand-picked leadership team has purged its ranks of dozens of executives and staffers, presumably to fill the ranks of the Party with Trump loyalists, Politico reports.
More than 60 employees were let go on Monday, mainly in the political, communications and data teams; the RNC should expect more staff to quit as those fired get hired by campaign teams that need to bulk up given new co-chair Lara Trump’s promise to put “every dollar” into Donald Trump’s personal legal and political efforts.
Firing such a large portion of the national team as campaign season heats up and primaries are still occurring undermines long-standing relationships those staff had with key figures, be they in the local organizing efforts or with local and national outlets. In the last few election cycles, the RNC has typically hit a peak of 1,000 paid employees, but with the national committee raising just $73 million in 2023–even though outgoing chair Ronna Romney McDaniel claimed a record $23 million haul in January and February–the national coffers are still too light to help failing operations in Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota, key states for the GOP in 2024.