It's Time For The RNC To Break Up With Trump

For someone who likes to tell his followers, and anyone else who can stand listening to him, that he’s a master businessman who is also definitely a millionaire, Trump sure has a lot of holes in his pockets emptying into various civil and criminal courts right now. Another lawsuit may bankrupt him completely. (Crosses fingers, toes, arms, and legs and wishes on a galaxy worth of stars.)

Last month CBS News reported that Trump’s campaign and the Super PACs supporting him have already spent over $10 million in legal fees this year. And it’s only April!

Save America PAC, the political action committee paying for most of Trump's legal defenses, spent over $5.5 million in February alone on legal bills, and so far this year, it has spent more than $8.5 million. The group carried about another $500,000 of debt owed to attorneys for Trump into March.

The RNC is a mess right now—in complete disarray. It’s under new leadership, and they’ve been laying people off since the beginning of the year. RNC fundraising has been anemic compared to the DNC and Biden’s campaign, which is not helping the organization either. Despite that, some RNC members support paying more of Trump’s legal bills. I’m sure those folks think they’re friends of his who will benefit from showing him loyalty, but the leopard will eat their faces eventually, too.

Trump is trying to milk the RNC for all, or more than, it’s worth, and they don’t seem interested in doing anything about it. Earlier this week, Trump’s Make America Great Again 2024 campaign sent out a memo telling all candidates and committees that if they use Trump's name or likeness, they will need to pay a minimum of 5% of all fundraising solicitations to the Trump National Committee JFC.

No, I did not add that JFC. It stands for Joint Fundraising Committee because Trump’s campaign has partnered with the RNC for fundraising. Asking your business partners for money as you sink deeper and deeper into debt is a sure sign of wealth and stability. Yep, nothing to see here.

This money grab should be the last straw for the RNC and its relationship with candidate Trump. If using his name and likeness were a guaranteed win, maybe a 5% cut would be justified. But Republican candidates can no longer fundraise on Trump’s name or image and expect to win. When he ran in 2016 Trump was considered the far-right extreme of the party. His campaign opened the door to extremists even farther right who are running for office on even worse ideas this time around. They’re not interested in fundraising off of Trump’s name because he’s not extreme enough anymore. And the RNC candidates who aren’t as extreme as Trump, or the folks who use phrases like “J6 hostages” unironically, don’t want to use his name because it alienates the more reasonable Republican voters. Whoever those unicorns are.

None of that will stop Trump from collecting this 5%+ vig any time his name is mentioned in any context though. Even if it’s a negative mention. The only recourse is for RNC candidates to stop talking about him altogether. The RNC too. They should drop him as a candidate. Think about how much money it would save them. They’re just going to get deeper and deeper in the hole to him with every lawsuit and every time someone says, “I’m not like Trump,” until they do. In the wise words of an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice columnist, do yourself and America a favor and DTMFA, RNC.