Atlanta (AP) – Amy Clemer He was the early Tea Party leader who supported him. Donald Trump For the President in 2016. She ran for Congress from Georgia in 2017, winning less than 1% of the main Republican vote.
2021, her The meeting has been organized Near the White House that happened hours before hundreds of Trump supporters. Attacked the US Capitol Protests his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Just as voters come to power in 2024, Kremer has stepped out of conservative stubbornness to become a member of the Republican national committee. This week in Atlanta, she used the post to help her elect a new party president. The Joe Gruters of Florida. He is another original Trump supporter, described by the president as a reference to the “Maga Warrior,” a movement that “makes America great again.”
“I didn’t expect to sit here for something like this,” Kremer said. “It’s Donald Trump’s party now.”
The sitting president usually chooses the leader of the Kuomintang. But today’s RNC with grassroots activists like cremers and leaders Gluter, It shows how much Republicans have changed from the major party that controlled the establishment, and now reflects Trump and his populist nationalism.
In almost 12 interviews with RNC members, I felt a sense of familiarity with the president, who described him as running deeper than his predecessors. They argue that Trump has reshaped the economy and that the role of the federal government and the US in the world is behind, and that they are confident His political struggle The party will not be doomed in the 2026 midterm elections.
They explain the seamless relationship between the White House and the party’s machinery, and are better than during Trump’s first term. Perhaps most notably, he argued that Republicans’ “America First” and Maga’s identity were not about Trump’s charismatic branding, but was evidence of a movement that precedes and continues beyond the presidency.
“When I saw the working class people who bought this, it was real. It wasn’t a night flight,” said Michael McDonald, chairman of the Nevada Republican. “Donald Trump brought something that needed to wake up the party, and he did.
Trump didn’t start as a Republican man
Cremer took RNC seat when the party was called up 2024 Convention In Milwaukee. She was one of nearly 40 new members out of 168 seats. Another 21 new members have joined the Atlanta committee.
“It’s all a mag,” she said.
McDonald of Nevada was elected in 2011 and is now the longest party chair of the Republican Party. He laughed when asked about the party’s dynamics during Trump’s first campaign and presidency.
“We had people within the Republican Party throwing marble at our feet,” said McDonald, who was charged with fake electors after the 2020 election. Nevada State Judge Dismissed the case last year.
Trump’s second term Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was the 2016 Florida Senator and one of Trump’s major rivals. “con man.” Another candidate at the GOP convention that year, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Fraut Protocol By not explicitly endorsing Trump.
Trump’s first violation with the party seemed to be blame after he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. A Washington outsider, he had little choice but to build the West Wing and the administration, which included many Republicans who were not true followers.
His first Chief of StaffReince Priebus led the RNC, with Trump running for president and dealing with GOP power players who wanted to block Trump’s nomination. Trump’s first RNC chair was Rona Romney McDaniel, the 2012 GOP nomination Mitt Romney nie, Rona Romney McDaniel, who had publicly warned against Trump’s election.
In office, Trump relied on his news cycle and his ability to control the story. He largely ignored the party’s structure and was not closely involved in the 2018 medium-term campaign, in which Democrats won a majority in the US home.
Anyway, a new kind face has appeared on the cards.
People around Trump have laid the long-term foundations despite what appears to be his separation from the party.
MacDonald’s Loyalists Stephen Bannon and David Bossey. Susie Willsthe current White House Chief of Staff, others have supported building state-level infrastructure and recruited candidates for Party Party Leadership, RNC seats and Downballot Office.
Other newcomers showed up on their own, inspired by Trump.
Alabama Party Chairman John Wahl said: In 2021, he became the youngest GOP chairman in the nation at the age of 34.
Wall has replaced Terry Lathan, a loyal party soldier for the candidate, ranging from moderates like Arizona Sen. John McCain to party crushers like Trump. However, in 2023, after she left her job and was free to choose a leading candidate for GOP president, she supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to Trump. Rasan did not attend Trump’s 2024 nomination competition in Milwaukee.
Brian Miller, who was elected Wyoming’s Republican president this year, supported Trump in the 2016 primary after Miller retired from the Air Force and joined his county GOP committee leadership. He recalls watching his state’s most famous Republican, as well as US Rep. Liz Cheney, lead the House. Committee It investigated the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. She supported Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party Through Trump in 2024.
Miller said that if he had become the state chairperson ten years ago and that Liz Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, was told he would be welcomed among Wyoming Republicans.
“America First” unity disables any disa
Greement
Allegiance to Trump does not mean there is perfect harmony among Republicans.
Evan Power, chairman of the Florida GOP and former Rubio aide, agreed that some Republicans still prefer conservative orthodoxy about world trade and international alliances. But he spoke to voters’ rage towards uneven economy, saying Trump’s confrontational approach to other countries is no different to the way the president engages in domestic politics.
“Now people know that his fighting style is something that wins elections,” Power said.
Miller pointed out National Guard troops on the streets of the District of Columbia and admitted questions about their use. Armed federal military force Police in American cities.
“I’m fine with that. The way it’s set as long as we stay within the law,” he said, “to do what the military “is just supporting the role.”
Kremer, who once denounced President Barack Obama’s health as a budget buster, said he knows the new tax credits and spending cuts promoted by Trump will add trillions of dollars to the country’s debt.
“No one else will deport illegals and close their borders,” she said. “It’s a chance cost. I know he’ll spend more. I’m not okay with that, but I know you don’t have everything.”
Trump himself has learned some of the same bottom line pragmatism that the party is concerned about.
Trump during his 2024 campaign Pushed out McDaniel From the RNC. He slammed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump and North Carolina’s Michael Whatley as co-chairs of the party. Well, it’s Whatley Playing cards picks He leads the RNC in the US Senate in North Carolina.
Vice President JD Vance chairs the RNC’s financial affairs on an unusually high-ranking link between the White House and the party’s fundraising equipment.
And with almost every new sales across the party’s organizational chart, the scale is leaning even further in the direction of Trump.
“He sat in asylum for four years and thought about what he could do better,” said Power, Florida chairman.
