Lara Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law whom he endorsed as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said Wednesday that she believes Republican voters are interested in the RNC funding Trump’s legal bills.
After speaking at the former president’s South Carolina campaign headquarters Wednesday evening, Lara Trump was asked by NBC News if she thinks the RNC paying for his legal bills is something that would be of interest to Republican voters.
“Absolutely. That’s why you’ve seen a GoFundMe get started,” she said in remarks to a gaggle of reporters, referring to a GoFundMe page set up by Trump’s supporters in response to his multiple legal battles. “That’s why people are furious right now and they see the attacks against him. They feel like it’s an attack, not just on Donald Trump, but on this country … So I think that is a big interest to people. Absolutely.”
Lara Trump also gave her pitch on why she should be elected as co-chair of the RNC in response to a question by NBC News.
“I worked with the RNC whenever I was you know, part of the Trump campaign from 2016 all the way through 2020,” she said. “So, I mean, I think as far as campaigns go, I have a lot of experience. I’m sure there’s a lot I still need to learn about.”
The RNC and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former president last week endorsed Michael Whatley to be the next head of the Republican National Committee and said he supports his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, for co-chair. His endorsement comes amid reports that RNC chair Ronna McDaniel could step down after South Carolina’s GOP primary on Saturday. Trump has also said that it's time for McDaniel to leave her post and that he would recommend changes at the RNC after the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and general counsel for the RNC, previously served on the Trump-Pence campaign and transition team.
Lara Trump, who is married to the former president’s son Eric Trump, had assisted her father-in-law’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns and appeared on Fox News as an on-air contributor.
In response to Lara Trump’s comments, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, Alex Floyd, called her “a self-described ‘ultra-MAGA’ extremist who has been endorsed by her father-in-law to transform the RNC into a shell for Donald Trump and his legal bills.”
“With Donald Trump already pouring gasoline onto the dumpster fire that is the RNC, Lara Trump taking over as co-chair ensures that both the RNC and Trump campaign will continue to put up the same disastrous fundraising numbers they have filing after filing. GOP donors should save themselves the effort and just light their cash on fire themselves,” Floyd said in a statement.
In an interview with Newsmax last week, Lara Trump said that if she is elected to serve as co-chair of the RNC, “every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the RNC — that is electing Donald J. Trump as president of the United States and saving this country.
She reiterated that sentiment to reporters earlier Wednesday afternoon at a campaign event in Beaufort, South Carolina.
“Well, I said every penny will go to making sure Donald Trump will be the 47th president, to ensuring that we have great candidates to expand our lead in the House and to take back the Senate,” she said.
Pressed again at the afternoon event about whether the RNC will help Trump pay his legal bills, Lara Trump declined to weigh in.
“I actually don’t know where they stand on that,” she said. “Obviously, I’m not officially with the RNC. So I’d have to get back to you.”
Asked whether she would support the RNC helping her father-in-law support his legal bills, Lara Trump said she thinks his “legal bills have already been covered at this point.”
“And I think that you’ve already seen how upset the people of this country are — so much so that they started a GoFundMe page for my father in law, because they can see just how egregious and outrageous all of this is that he has to deal with,” she said. “So I think he’s already got that covered.”
Campaign finance records show President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has been outraising Trump’s as the former president’s legal woes drain his campaign funds, with the main super PAC supporting Trump’s campaign, MAGA Inc., having spent more than it raised in the last six months of 2023.
