Former President Donald Trump said Sunday there will “probably be some changes” at the Republican National Committee, an ominous prediction for the future of current chair Ronna McDaniel.
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump on Sunday how McDaniel was doing as the head of the RNC, which has struggled with fundraising and a string of political defeats. The body entered 2024 with just $8 million in the bank, according to recent financial disclosures.
“I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me, I think she did OK initially in the RNC,” Trump said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” pointing to his success in the state during the 2016 presidential election. “I would say right now there will probably be some changes made.”
The party has faced some controversy in recent days after some of Trump’s allies tried to introduce a resolution that would have declared him its presumptive nominee, even though fellow GOP candidate Nikki Haley is still in the race. The RNC pulled the plug on that effort and Trump himself said that, for the “sake of PARTY UNITY,” officials should wait until he has enough delegates to be declared the official candidate.
McDaniel had already thrown her weight behind Trump following his win in the New Hampshire primaries last month, saying at the time that she didn’t “see it” for Haley after her second-place finish.
“I think she’s run a great campaign,” McDaniel said of the former United Nations ambassador. “But I do think there is a message that’s coming out from the voters, which is very clear. We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump.”
Trump had until recently praised McDaniel’s leadership. She was elected to her fourth term last year, but some in the party have questioned if she’s right to lead into the future after her current term ends.
McDaniel has indicated she would step aside from her role if the eventual nominee prefers another chairperson, The New York Times reports. But doing so just months before the Republican National Convention would be an unprecedented move, Axios added.
