NEW YORK (AP) — A nascent rebellion is underway against That of President Donald Trump hand-picked chairman of the Republican National Committee, and it’s already getting ugly.
Some members are calling for a thorough audit of spending decisions, including hair and makeup services for Trump and other officials, as well as the hiring of Trump’s former president’s daughter. chief of staff. Conflicting Republicans leak opposition emails and research on rival factions. The White House threatens to withhold all fundraising assistance if the rebels do not fall into line.
The emerging fight, which will shape the race for the 2028 presidential nomination, represents a rare challenge to Trump’s dominance, even after the party’s victory. worst performance at midterm in one generation. Despite the heavy lossesRepublican leaders across Washington showed little desire to overtake Trump and have largely supported his most unpopular policies.
But within the RNC, a 168-member organization elected in every state and which oversees the party’s national political operations, a small but growing group supports an attempt to remove the party. Joe Gruters. Trump wants to keep him in charge.
The dissidents are rallying around Kentucky’s KC Crosbie, the RNC’s number two, who launched his candidacy just two days after the Nov. 3 election in a letter that drew fury from the White House and Gruters’ allies.
Crosbie remains a staunch Trump supporter who supports his “Make America Great Again” agenda, but her opponents view her strategy as a direct challenge to the president and his power.
“We have an obligation to serve the Republican Party in the most effective way possible. And if all we do is say yes to what the White House wants, I’m not sure that’s what’s best for the Republican Party,” said Tennessee RNC member Oscar Brock, who is supporting Crosbie’s candidacy. “Our job is to elect Republicans broadly, not to support one man all the time. »
He said this requires a change in leadership.
“There’s so much frustration that Chairman Gruters didn’t do his best in this election, that the RNC was far less effective than it should have been,” he said.
In his letter, Crosbie described the midterm elections as “a serious setback” and called on the RNC to provide “an honest accounting” of what went wrong.
“We must preserve what we have built and be equally willing to face our failures,” she wrote.
Crosbie declined to be interviewed. The leadership election will take place in January at the RNC’s winter meeting in Arizona.
At the heart of the rebellion against Gruters
It’s unclear how many RNC members will support Crosbie, although so far the number is estimated to be low. Some potential supporters privately acknowledge they worry about a backlash from the White House, particularly with Stephen Miller take over as Trump’s new White House chief of staff. Others believe in the committee’s tradition of presidents choosing their own party leaders.
Gruters also has vocal supports.
Maine RNC member Lauren LePage praised the president’s leadership and efforts to helping his father, Paul LePage, flipping a congressional seat — a rare bright spot for Republicans this election cycle.
She described Gruters as being “very responsive” during the campaign and praised his “record fundraising.”
“From my perspective, as president, he did his job,” she said, adding that Trump’s support is “something the committee should take very seriously.”
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald called Crosbie a “dear friend” but said Trump is “the leader of our party” and “you must always align yourself with the leader.”
“I don’t have a bad word to say about KC at all. It’s just that the president wants to go with Joe Gruters,” he said. “The president has made his choice.”
Republicans who lined up behind Crosbie insist a change in leadership is needed to send a clear message that the party will do things differently after defeats, even in conservative strongholds such as Texas, South Carolina And Mississippi.
Virginia RNC member Patti Lyman said it would be “catastrophic” and “insulting” to the party’s base “to stay in the same direction and pretend that we don’t need to do something different, that we don’t need new players and a new plan.”
Lyman described Crosbie as “by far the best candidate currently in the running to lead the RNC to victory in 2028.”
Rhode Island RNC committee member Sue Cienki predicted Crosbie would have the support of at least two members from 10 states — for a total of 20 — at the committee’s January meeting. This number is the minimum required for a successful application.
She insisted she would not be scared off by backlash from Trump or the White House, which is actively pressuring members of the RNC.
“We should not be influenced by one person or another. This is our organization,” Cienki said. “We must hold elections, not a selection.”
Trump is furious with Crosbie
Trump and senior White House officials were furious about Crosbie’s November 5 letter and the fact that they had not been warned.
During a meeting at the White House on November 6, Trump threatened to punish the RNC if members upset him and said he would refuse to help the organization, including participating in fundraisers or allowing his name and likeness to be used in mail and digital solicitations. That’s according to a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the meeting, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Such a threat would be catastrophic for the party because Trump remains its main money raiser.
An Axios article first reporting the threats was distributed by text message to all 168 members of the RNC.
The same senior White House official said staff convinced Trump that he should not go after Crosbie personally that day. Instead, he released a lengthy statement on his social media platform Truth Social, hailing Gruters as a “MAGA warrior” and giving him his “complete and utter endorsement.”
The leadership struggle comes as Trump has shown no interest in giving up power.
The Constitution prohibits Trump from seeking a third term, but he is expected to play a central role in choosing the party’s next presidential nominee. Trump’s team says he remains the most popular Republican in the country, and House Republicans this week elected a list of new leaders closely linked to him.
The White House referred questions about the leadership struggle to Trump’s Truth Social post.
The future of the party is at stake
The RNC will oversee the party’s presidential primary process, including establishing the nomination schedule, debate schedule, national convention and rules governing the selection of the White House nominee.
People close to Gruters, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Crosbie’s campaign was “100 percent a challenge” to the president’s power and described the RNC as “the president’s political operation.”
Allies argued that a change in leadership now would seriously disadvantage the RNC heading into the next presidential cycle because a new team would need time to get up to speed and they warned that friction between the president and committee leaders would reduce their ability to organize and raise money.
They also rejected Crosbie’s call for a post-election review, which they said would do little more than rehash the past and put all their grievances on paper. Similar requests for a retrospective have been a headache for Ken Martinthe embattled head of the Democratic National Committee, following Trump’s 2024 victory.
But they said Gruters took the criticism seriously and sought feedback to make adjustments by 2028.
Gruters spent much of this week holding private phone conversations with committee members. Those who participated in the calls said Gruters listened to their grievances but said little about what he would do differently.
Spending comes under scrutiny
Opposition to Trump’s choice to lead the RNC has little to do with Trump’s leadership or his policy decisions, according to nearly a half-dozen Crosbie supporters.
Instead, they focused on the RNC’s spending decisions under Gruters. The Republicans had a huge fundraising advantage and still lost the House and Senate.
“There is clearly a groundswell of support for a forensic audit,” said Brock, the Tennessee RNC.
In a letter to RNC members sent Thursday evening and obtained by The Associated Press, Gruters acknowledged his concerns.
Gruters defended a $22,500 expense for hospitality space at the Presidents Cup golf event, saying it was gifted to major donors and “resulted in $2.5 million in repeat contributions to the RNC.”
He also raised concerns about “a brief contract” between the RNC and Caroline Wiles, a longtime Republican consultant who is the daughter of Susie Wiles, Trump’s former chief of staff. Gruters said she was hired by her predecessor on the committee, Michael Whatley.
“While I have no reason to doubt Caroline Wiles’ value to the RNC or why Chairman Whatley recruited her, it was a brief six-month engagement that ended when I was elected Chairman,” he wrote.
Gruters also defended the RNC’s decision to pay for “hair and makeup services” for top White House officials, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and former press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“This was a request to us so that the expenses would not fall on taxpayers,” Gruters wrote. He said grantees “generously gave much of their limited time and energy to help the RNC this cycle” and “didn’t ask much of us in return, so we thought it was a request we could meet.”
Gruters promised to provide members with “honest and direct responses to concerns raised” as conversations continue.
“I am committed to listening to you and learning from you about what happened on the ground,” he wrote, “so that together we can move forward stronger than ever.”
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