The Republican National Committee voted Friday to install Donald Trump맥스카지노�s handpicked chair, completing his takeover of the national party as the former president closes in on a third straight presidential nomination.Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican who has echoed Trump맥스카지노�s false theories of voter fraud, was elected the party맥스카지노�s new national chairman in a vote Friday morning in Houston. Lara Trump, the former president맥스카지노�s daughter-in-law, is expected to become co-chair.Trump맥스카지노�s team is promising not to use the RNC to pay his mounting personal legal bills. But Trump and his lieutenants will have firm control of the party맥스카지노�s political and fundraising machinery with limited, if any, internal pushback.맥스카지노�The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,맥스카지노� Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected.Whatley will carry the top title, replacing longtime chair Ronna McDaniel after she fell out of favor with key figures in the former president맥스카지노�s 맥스카지노�Make America Great Again맥스카지노� movement. But he will be surrounded by people closer to Trump.Lara Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances. The functional head of the RNC will be Chris LaCivita, who will assume the committee맥스카지노�s chief of staff role while maintaining his job as one of the Trump campaign맥스카지노�s top two advisers.With Trump맥스카지노�s blessing, LaCivita is promising to enact sweeping changes and staffing moves at every level of the RNC to ensure it runs seamlessly as an extension of the Trump campaign.In an interview Thursday, LaCivita sought to tamp down concerns from some RNC members that the already cash-strapped committee would help pay Trump맥스카지노�s legal bills. Trump faces four criminal indictments and a total of 91 counts as well as a $355 million civil fraud judgment, which he is appealing. His affiliated Save America political action committee has spent $76 million over the last two years on lawyers.People speculating about the RNC paying for legal bills, LaCivita said, do so 맥스카지노�purely on the basis of trying to hurt donors.맥스카지노� Trump맥스카지노�s legal bills are instead being covered largely by Save America, a separate political entity.맥스카지노�The fact of the matter is not a penny of the RNC맥스카지노�s money or, for that matter, the campaign맥스카지노�s money has gone or will go to pay legal fees,맥스카지노� he said.The RNC was paying some of Trump맥스카지노�s legal bills for New York cases that started while he was president, The Washington Post reported, but McDaniel said in November 2022 that the RNC would stop paying once Trump became a candidate again and joined the 2024 presidential race.When Trump announced his plans to replace the party맥스카지노�s leadership, it raised fresh questions about whether the committee would pay his bills. Those questions intensified after Lara Trump said last month that she wasn맥스카지노�t familiar with the party맥스카지노�s rules about paying her father-in-law맥스카지노�s legal fees, but she thought the idea would get broad support among Republican voters.Facing such mixed messages, some RNC members remain skeptical.Republican committeeman Henry Barbour, of Mississippi, proposed a non-binding resolution explicitly stating that RNC funds could not be used for Trump맥스카지노�s legal bills. Yet the resolution died when Barbour failed to earn the support of RNC members from at least 10 states.맥스카지노�People I맥스카지노�ve talked to on the committee privately all agree that donor money needs to be devoted to winning elections, not legal fees,맥스카지노� said Republican committeeman John Hammond, of Indiana. 맥스카지노�I맥스카지노�m sure the committee would be glad to have some more assurance about that and clarification.맥스카지노�The new leadership team is also expectedly to more fully embrace Trump맥스카지노�s focus on voter fraud and his debunked claims about the election he lost to President Joe Biden. Multiple court cases and Trump맥스카지노�s own Justice Department failed to reveal any evidence of significant voting irregularities.Whatley, an attorney, has largely avoided using Trump맥스카지노�s characterization of Biden맥스카지노�s victory and said in one 2021 interview that Biden 맥스카지노�absolutely맥스카지노� was legitimately elected and won the majority of the electoral college votes. But he said in another interview in the weeks after the 2020 election that there was 맥스카지노�massive fraud.맥스카지노� He has also made focusing on 맥스카지노�election integrity맥스카지노� a top priority for his state party in the years since.In a letter announcing her candidacy for co-chair, Lara Trump wrote to members of the committee telling them she intends to focus on battleground states, getting out the vote in close races, to comb through the RNC맥스카지노�s finances, including all of its contracts and agreements and cut spending 맥스카지노�that doesn맥스카지노�t directly go to winning elections.맥스카지노�A key priority, she wrote, is working to ensure that the election is secure, something her father-in-law has made a chief focus.In some ways, Trump맥스카지노�s GOP takeover represents a typical transition for major political parties when they shift from the primary to the general election phase of presidential elections. Candidates are typically given the keys to their national parties once they secure the presidential nomination. Biden, for example, effectively controls the Democratic National Committee.Yet some privately worry that Trump is creating unnecessary drama and distraction for the party.McDaniel is being replaced on Friday after Trump pressured her to resign. She was Trump맥스카지노�s hand-picked choice back in 2017. And he supported her reelection every two years as recently as last year.But McDaniel increasingly drew the ire of MAGA leaders who blamed her for Republican losses in recent years. Other Republicans have blamed Trump, who remains broadly unpopular with Americans and vulnerable in particular with suburban and college-educated voters. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. adults said they would be dissatisfied if Trump were nominated for president, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll published in December.