RNC, Trump campaign have ‘no functional difference’ after ex-prez triggered staff shakeup, layoffs: sources
Republican National Committee staffers have been told in no uncertain terms that “there is no functional difference” between the GOP institution and former President Donald Trump’s White House campaign, sources from both sides tell The Post.
The merger between the RNC and the Trump effort has been underway all this week after Michael Whatley and Lara Trump officially assumed their respective chair and co-chair positions on Monday.
The new leadership was backed by the former president, 77, and voted in unanimously last week, and dozens of staffers were subsequently informed they would have to reapply for their positions or face definite termination on March 31.
By Thursday morning, there were already visible changes inside the RNC’s Washington, DC headquarters, with some higher-ups already gone and an influx of Trump campaign staffers making introductions.
“We don’t really have a boss right now, work continues on auto-pilot — just doing what we did before,” one RNC staffer told The Post.
“We report to the Trump campaign, but the specific person hasn’t been identified and the process for approving projects has not been laid out,” the person added.
“No one is moving from Florida to DC, but higher-ups have been in the building all week. Plus we’re still working on systems to open collaboration between the two teams.”
Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser in the RNC communications shop who came over from the Trump campaign, confirmed to The Post that the two sides “had joined forces, but as much as it’s allowed by law.”
“We wanted to streamline everything. We wanted to make sure there were no operational redundancies,” she said. “We’re making sure that all of our resources are out in the field and making sure that we are in one battle with them.”
“It’s not unprecedented, it’s happened in the past,” Alvarez went on. “It probably more closely mirrors what 2016 looked like than 2020. Because in 2020 there was a lot of duplication within each organization.”
Illinois Republican National Committeeman Richard Porter also argued the integration process is nothing new, and is a product of the RNC having competitive primaries this year.
“There are no conversations like this about the DNC, because the Biden campaign and the DNC were integrated from the outset, just as the RNC and Trump campaign were integrated from the outset in 2020. The RNC is going through a transition now because we held a competitive primary that Trump has dominated,” Porter told The Post.
“Now the RNC forms a close, supportive arrangement with our nominee, and we will work as closely with them as the law permits,” he added. “When you move to this stage, there are redundancies and overlap. There will be division of labor. So everything that’s happening is a sign of an efficient, effective campaign.”
Among the the new RNC brass are COO Sean Cairncross, an ex-Trump White House senior adviser, and chief of staff Chris LaCivita, also a top campaign adviser to the 45th president.
Jason Roe, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the Michigan GOP, said that the personnel involved give him “confidence” that the RNC will be on the right path, despite the initial shakeup shock.
“What is novel is that they are pretty much eliminating the separation of the two. I do think it will be more streamlined,” Roe said, noting that some staffers, like LaCivita, will be working with the RNC while on the campaign trail.
Some pundits have wondered what the effect of the merger will be on Republicans trying to win downballot races as the party tries to recapture the Senate and expand its House majority.
Roe said the success of those campaigns will depend on the new GOP leadership’s skill at field organizing, but argued the Trump-RNC takeover has no material effect on the election odds.
“I don’t know that this tactical change will in any way change Trump’s impact, positive or negative, on any candidate campaign,” he argued. “For most voters, this campaign stuff is insider stuff that they don’t understand or care about.”
