Donald Trump’s threats to leave the Republican Party can be costly for both sides.
The tension between the Republican National Committee and Trump is palpable.
The treasure trove of personal information about Republican voters and donors is a “gold mine”, said a former RNC official.
Trump has been talking about opening his own party if Republicans prevent him from running again in 2024.
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Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel sent an email to supporters on Friday that praised former President Donald Trump and listed his “HUGE successes” for Americans.
“President Trump did what no one thought possible and he NEVER stopped putting America first,” wrote McDaniel. “It is because of your leadership that the future of this country has never been better.”
But when the email asked supporters to make a political contribution on behalf of “our critical America First agenda”, someone was excluded from the reward: Trump.
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Every dollar donated goes to the RNC and only to the RNC – a notable deviation from what even earlier this month had been routine: the RNC, the Trump campaign and, recently, a new Trump political action committee, raising money on set.
This small but significant change portends a complicated and even contentious future between two long-standing political giants.
Some members of the RNC leadership, the group of 168 men and women who set the rules for selecting the Republican presidential candidate, have been struggling to remove Trump from his party now that he has left the White House in disgrace.
A Trump / RNC divorce – something unthinkable weeks ago – seems more and more possible. Trump, for his part, is even considering whether to create his own political party, which the Wall Street Journal said could be called the “Patriot Party”.
A lot of money is at stake. Most notably: the huge private list of millions of Trump supporters who contributed money, signed pro-Trump petitions, volunteered for the campaign and opted to receive emails, text messages and other communications.
“The list is a gold mine,” a former RNC employee told Insider.
A supporter of President Trump waves flags outside McKenzie Arena, November 4, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Drew Angerer / Getty images
Problems in MAGA paradise
Since Trump became the presumed Republican presidential candidate in 2016, the Trump campaign and the RNC have engaged in a long-standing marriage of convenience and necessity.
McDaniel, who took the “Romney” out of his name to become president of Trump’s RNC, was tasked with uniting the establishment Republicans and the far-right nationalists who formed Trump’s base. Increasingly in the past four years, the ranks of former Republicans “established” at the RNC have been replaced by a new “establishment” that promised allegiance to Trump.
Perhaps the most symbolic “marriage” of the former establishment and Trump – outside of the RNC’s 2016 efforts to help Trump win the nomination – was the merging of the Trump campaign’s volunteer and fundraising lists with highly voter data. valuable RNC.
This marriage, in the form of a low-cost online fundraising machine, was initially dubbed the “Patriot Pass” – until the owner of the New England Patriots football team, Bob Kraft, called Trump in January. 2019 and complained. The fundraising and data platform was quickly renamed: WinRed.
But WinRed was not released publicly for another six months, largely because of concerns that Trump and his team would use it to steal valuable data from Republicans, and amid concerns that Trump’s campaign manager and advisers they were using it to get rich.
The contract that cemented the link between the RNC and the Trump campaign is one of the party’s best kept secrets, to the point where even RNC members complain about not knowing what’s in the deal and who’s winning what with the deal. .
Three Republican lawyers familiar with RNC operations told Insider that any contract between the Trump campaign and the RNC would likely detail all forms of financial arrangements in the event of a schism, including who controls the data of the supporters they have so far shared. .
“I assume that most of this will be governed by contract and, if not – and perhaps if it is – will be governed by litigation,” added former Federal Election Commission chairman Bradley Smith, now president of the Freedom of Expression Institute without to profit.
The RNC did not immediately respond to Insider’s questions. A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
A demonstrator wears a Make America Great Again cap. Donald Trump personally registered the slogan and his presidential campaign subsequently took over the brand.
Hollie Adams / Stringer
When politicians make millions from supporters’ personal information
This political list data is extraordinarily valuable, both politically and financially, for parties and candidates. It can even generate money for years after a political campaign goes down.
“You need to dig the lists, no one is looking at them,” a former RNC official told Insider shortly after the 2020 election.
The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, for example, earned millions of dollars post-election by renting his supporters’ personal information to data brokers and other interested third parties.
Last year, Romney’s old presidential campaign was still making money by renting his list of supporters from Newsmax Media, according to Federal Electoral Commission records. Romney’s presidential committee finally ended in September, transferring much of its remaining $ 92,000 to Romney’s campaign committee in the United States Senate after paying outstanding bills.
Then there is the issue of intellectual property.
In 2012, for example, Trump personally filed a trademark application for what would become his ubiquitous campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office officially registered it on July 14, 2015 , according to federal records.
Trump’s presidential campaign committee subsequently took ownership of the “Make America Great Again” brand, revealing that it would be used for several dozen different purposes: fundraising, videos, hats, baby clothes, “online social networking services on politics. “
The RNC routinely used “Make America Great Again” in its communications and, together, operated the Trump Make America Great Again joint fundraising committee. The donations benefited both Trump’s presidential campaign and the RNC.
A few days after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election last November, the Trump Make America Great Again committee added another beneficiary to its ranks.
His name: Save America, a PAC that Trump created days before he himself controlled.
These “leadership PACs” can use the money they raise for a variety of purposes, including paying expenses that could personally benefit their sponsors, including travel, accommodation, legal and meal expenses.
Many electoral reformers consider leadership PACs, which Republicans and Democrats use, little more than legalized funds ready for abuse.
McDaniel continues to balance competing Republican forces, even as she looks at the exit after the 2022 mid-term election, RNC members and Republicans close to the RNC said.
What Trump will do next politically is unclear, although the decision may not be entirely up to him.
If the Senate votes to convict him in his impeachment trial, senators will have the option of banning Trump from taking federal office again – eliminating his stated interest in running for president again in 2024.
