When news broke last week that the Republican National Committee had its worst fundraising year in a decade, Donald Trump and his advisers were deeply alarmed. They began laying plans to send a clear message that things needed to change as the former president inches closer to the Republican nomination, sources familiar with the conversations tell CNN.
Trump quickly started privately and publicly making his grievances with the RNC and its chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, more widely known — outlining his frustrations during a series of interviews, in which he questioned McDaniel’s leadership and the direction of the committee.
On Monday, Trump stated on social media that he would “be making a decision the day after the South Carolina Primary as to my recommendations for RNC Growth,” laying down a clear marker for his plans to get more intimately involved in changes at the committee.
The declaration came just hours after Trump and McDaniel had met for more than two hours at his Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss the direction of the RNC, two sources briefed on the meeting told CNN, both of whom described it as cordial.
The heightened concerns over the RNC’s latest financial problems are just the tipping point in a yearslong struggle between Trump and the committee. The former president still harbors resentment toward the organization over the 2020 election, blaming it for not having what he believes were the proper attorneys or systems in place to challenge the election results, two Trump advisers said.
Those tensions have continued to grow in recent months, with Trump and his campaign becoming increasingly frustrated with how the RNC handled the GOP primary debates, and, more recently, with the bungling of an RNC draft resolution privately supported by the former president that would have…
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