Lara Trump, the person whom Donald Trump wants to be the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said Wednesday that she thinks Republican voters across the country would like to see the political organization pay the former president’s mounting legal bills.
The daughter-in-law of the current frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination acknowledged that she isn’t sure if the RNC rules would actually permit such payments but said conservative voters would support the idea because they perceive his various criminal and civil cases as forms of political persecution. “That’s why people are furious right now,” she said, adding: “They feel like it’s an attack not just on Donald Trump but on this country—so yeah, I think that is a big interest to people, absolutely.”
Lara Trump spoke at the Trump campaign headquarters in South Carolina ahead of the state’s Republican primary on Saturday. She also said the GOP needs a major fundraising push to help Trump in his bid for a second presidential term and for other congressional races.
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“We need to raise about half a billion dollars between now and November 5,” she said, according to Reuters. “We gotta make sure that people understand when they donate their money to the RNC, indeed it’s going go to causes that they care about.”
Donald Trump last week called for the RNC’s current leadership to change, endorsing North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley to be the next chair with his daughter-in-law as co-chair. Ronna McDaniel, the incumbent chairwoman, offered to step down following the South Carolina primary after she lost the former president’s support over Republican election failures, party finance issues, and fights about voter fraud.
“Having someone like me in there I think will go a long way for people,” Lara Trump told reporters Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. “I can assure you that my loyalty is to my father-in-law and I will make sure that every penny is used properly. It should be going to fight for Nov. 5 for the causes that we care about.”
In addition to the millions Donald Trump is currently spending on lawyers’ fees, his debts are now estimated to be more than $500 million.
A judge last week ordered the former president and his businesses to pay $355 million in penalties in a civil fraud case, with the interest on the fines potentially bringing the total punishment to over $450 million. The bruising ruling came less than a month after a jury also ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll, the writer he was found to have defamed when he accused her of lying when she accused him of sexual assault. Another jury in 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million for defamation and sexual assault.
