RNC shakeup: New Trump leadership slashes dozens of Republican National Committee staffers

Former President Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, a senior RNC source confirmed to Fox News.

Roughly 60 RNC staffers who work in the national party committee's communications, data, and political departments are being asked to resign, including a handful of senior staff, additional sources said.

The move came hours after the Trump campaign on Monday took operational control over the RNC.

And it comes as the new leadership aims to merge parts of the RNC with the Trump 2024 presidential campaign.

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Newly elected RNC chair Michael Whatley, and co-chair Lara Trump on stage at the RNC spring gathering in Houston, Texas on March 8, 2024. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

The former president's picks to serve as RNC chair and co-chair - Trump ally and North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump – were unanimously confirmed on Friday by voice votes as the RNC met in general session in Houston, Texas.

Whatley, who was the RNC's general counsel, succeeded longtime chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump picked to steer the national party committee after he won the White House in 2016. Her departure on Friday came after Trump earlier this year repeatedly urged changes at the committee – after lackluster fundraising last year and his opposition to the RNC's presidential primary debates – which essentially pushed McDaniel out the door.

Whatley, in his speech on Friday to committee members, vowed to "work hand in glove with President Trump’s campaign."

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Trump also installed campaign adviser Chris LaCivita as RNC chief of staff. LaCivita, a longtime Republican strategist and RNC veteran, will continue to keep his role as one of the two top advisers steering Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

"The RNC today. It’s not going to look the same next week. There’s obviously going to be changes," LaCivita told reporters on Friday. But he declined to get into details.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a Super Tuesday election night party Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Friday's RNC meeting came in the same week Trump swept 14 of the 15 GOP primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday – which moved him much closer to officially locking up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. 

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It also comes just two days after Trump's last rival for the nomination – former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – dropped out of the race.

Trump is expected to formally clinch the nomination on Tuesday, as four more states hold primaries and caucuses.

Last week's takeover of the RNC was far from controversial. It is traditional as a presidential election cycle moves from the primaries to the general election for the presumptive nominee of the party out of power to take control and merge operations. 

But Monday's layoffs are facing some criticism. 

"Slashing the committee as the general election gets underway seems crazy," said a former RNC official who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely.

And Alex Floyd, rapid response director for the rival Democratic National Committee, argued in a statement that "firing nearly one-third of your staff in a frantic mass ideological purge less than eight months before a presidential election is typically not a good sign for a political party." 

Fox News' Rich Edson contributed to this story.

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