Trump ‘Increasingly Sour’ With Ronna McDaniel as Advisers Urge Him to Demand RNC Chief’s Resignation: Report
With the losses that the Republican Party saw in last week’s off-year elections, Donald Trump has reportedly become more open to advisers suggesting he call for Ronna McDaniel’s resignation as Republican National Committee chairwoman.
CNBC reports that a source close to Trump says he has grown “increasingly sour” with McDaniel and the RNC’s leadership amid the GOP’s disappointments in Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. The report describes “a growing chorus” of Trump’s allies who’ve argued that the RNC didn’t help as much as it should have during those elections, and they don’t think McDaniel will be able to withstand the pressure from within her party if Trump calls for her to resign.
From the report:
Trump has been hearing from allies within his party who believe McDaniel’s leadership at the RNC is to blame for the party’s struggles, according to people familiar with the matter. They want Trump to pressure McDaniel to resign.
Several of the people lobbying the former president to turn on McDaniel also encouraged Trump not to publicly support Rep. Kevin McCarthy earlier this year, as the California Republican fought a losing battle to save his speakership.
“We didn’t want McCarthy, and then months later we lobbied the president to not save McCarthy,” a person familiar with that effort and the move to push McDaniel to resign said. “I do think if there’s enough pressure from us and Trump, McDaniel might just decide, ‘this is humiliating,’ and step down.”
While CNBC reported that another source close to Trump said they were unaware of any plans to call for McDaniel’s resignation, the report notes that there was previous friction between Trump and McDaniel when the former president reportedly made plans to start his own party in 2021. Trump recently denied those claims in audio obtained by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, and McDaniel has said that she would back Trump as the GOP’s nominee even if he’s convicted on the charges against him.
