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The Republican National Committee May Become Trump's Cash Machine | Opinion
This month, presumptive
Republican nominee for president
Donald Trump took over the Republican National Committee (RNC) and then days later
liquidated dozens of staff members, and installed three ride-or-die loyalists at the top. One of them is his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, married to Trump's son who isn't Donnie Jr., Eric. With the housecleaning at the RNC complete, Trump now has uncontested control of the Republican Party, which augurs poorly for the GOP's chances of capturing one or both chambers of
Congress, and offers a grim preview of what he would do to the federal government writ large should he win the 2024 presidential election.
Lara Trump was not given some two-bit job but made the co-chair of the RNC. Why, in a country of
334 million people and tens of millions of dedicated
Republicans, does Trump need to rely on a family member, particularly one with practically zero political experience, to run a major party organization in the United States?
Well, looking around the world, one sees many examples of authoritarian kleptocrats who, for quite good reasons, can't trust anyone not budded off the familial tree.
In fully authoritarian regimes, that's both because they worry that anyone without blood or marriage ties to the autocrat could choose to kill and replace them, and also because systemic graft is much simpler if it can be run through people who attended your wedding. In a United States that remains, for the moment, somewhat democratic, the worry is not that someone will topple Donald Trump, but that underlings won't carry out potentially deranged orders.
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