The Republican National Committee fired more than 60 staffers on Monday, a move that signals just how quickly the national party’s new leadership team is restructuring the committee.
The firings occurred just two days after former president Donald Trump’s handpicked RNC leadership candidates — North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley and Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara — were unanimously elected as the GOP’s new chair and co-chair to replace ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and former co-chair Drew McKissick, both of whom had resigned from their posts on Friday at the RNC’s spring meeting in Houston.
The move comes as the RNC is undergoing a merger of sorts with the Trump campaign after Nikki Haley dropped out of the presidential race and the former president looks poised to lock up the 2024 nomination. The restructuring took place to ensure that the RNC’s payroll is stacked with people who are aligned with Trump’s message.
“To clear up confusion, this is one team. There will not be redundancies,” a Trump official told NR.
The timeline for these layoffs came as a surprise to some staffers, many of whom saw the mass firings coming but did not expect them to occur so quickly after the leadership shake-up took place. Staffers were told by their bosses over the weekend to come in at 8 a.m. Monday, two people familiar with the matter told NR, an ominous sign that left many staffers bracing for the worst.
Politico first reported the firings Monday afternoon as taking place across “political, communications and data departments.” The RNC also fired regional political directors and state directors, people familiar with the matter told National Review, though some of those laid-off staffers were told they could reapply for their old positions. The party will also move its entire digital and finance teams to Palm Beach, Fla., a personal familiar with the matter confirmed to NR, because of the new leadership’s eagerness to move national party staff near the candidate’s main campaign headquarters.
The RNC’s new chief of operations, Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, personally fired five senior staffers — all of whom will be paid for one more month. Other staffers who were given the opportunity to reapply for their old jobs will have until the end of the month to do so and will be paid through March 31 either way.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that mass layoffs did not apply to the RNC’s election-integrity team, as this article originally misstated as a result of incorrect relaying of events from two Trump officials.