Former President Donald Trump on Sunday said “there’ll probably be some changes” when asked how Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is doing — an apparent shift from his previous praise for the chairwoman.
After Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo asked, “How’s Ronna McDaniel doing?” Trump predicted that “some changes” will be made, though he did not elaborate.
“I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me. I think she did okay, initially in the RNC,” he said. “I would say right now there’ll probably be some changes made.”
Trump’s remarks contrast with his past praise of McDaniel. During a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in October, Trump said McDaniel did a “fantastic job” leading the RNC.
The Trump campaign and the RNC did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Prior to NBC News’ projection last month that Trump had won the New Hampshire Republican primary, McDaniel signaled an intention to rally around Trump if he continues to dominate early caucuses and primaries.
“If President Trump comes out strong tonight, that’s a clear message being sent by our primary voters,” McDaniel said in a statement to NBC News before the New Hampshire results came in. “Republicans know that if we’re not united as a party behind our nominee we won’t be able to beat Biden.”
After Trump decisively won the New Hampshire Republican primary last month, McDaniel reiterated her desire to unite around Trump on the assumption that he emerges as the Republican presidential nominee.
“Every Republican has to agree that Joe Biden is a threat to our country, and if we do not unite and if we don’t coalesce to beat him, then we’re not going to be successful in 10 months, where the Senate’s at stake, the House is at stake, and the White House is at stake,” McDaniel told Fox News, referring to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
“I just don’t see the path and the math. I hope she reflects tonight. I think it’s time to move forward, and I think Donald Trump is going to be the nominee,” she added of Haley.
Haley has said she has “every intention” of staying in the race through Super Tuesday, and she said last week that the RNC was “clearly not” an honest broker in the primary race.
“If you’re gonna go in and basically tell the American people that you’re gonna go and decide who the nominee is after only two states have voted? I mean, 48 states out there?” she said. “This is a democracy. The American people want to have their say in who is going to be their nominee. We need to give them that.”
McDaniel attracted criticism after many Republican candidates had underwhelming performances in the 2022 and 2023 elections, punctuated by the GOP’s loss of ground in the Senate after Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., captured the seat previously held by Republican Pat Toomey.
Shortly after the 2022 midterms, the RNC stated its plans to proceed with a post-election audit, which closely examined the role Trump played in the results.
Republican Party officials last year said that their internal “autopsy” report analyzing the losses of many of their candidates in the 2022 midterms would not be made available to the public, two people familiar with the party’s thinking on the matter told NBC News at the time.
Despite an uprising from some corners of the RNC, McDaniel won a fourth term as chair in January 2023.
Jake Traylor contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
