Meet the Other Trump Who’s About to Lead the GOP

The former president still brings up the story almost eight years after beating Democrat Hillary Clinton and kicking down the door of American politics, while remaking the Republican Party in his own image and style.

“He always tells me that I’m a secret weapon," Lara Trump, 41 years old, said in an interview. “We really connected over politics after that and it became something I’ve immersed myself in."

Lara Trump is many things: wife of Eric Trump; a mother of two; a fitness fiend; a Tom Petty cover vocalist; a children’s book author; and a former “Inside Edition" producer. Now she is also a target for the minority of Republicans who worry her father-in-law is too dominant of a force within the party.

Later today at a meeting in Houston, she is expected to take on a bigger and more visible role supporting Donald Trump when she is elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee. She will immediately face the challenge of helping raise hundreds of millions of dollars as the party and Trump campaign contend with an enormous cash deficit with President Biden and the Democratic National Committee.

Donald Trump, now unchallenged for the GOP nomination, is swiftly assuming control of the RNC, as party nominees typically do. He is pushing for Lara Trump and Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina GOP and RNC general counsel, to take the top two jobs running the committee. The move has created waves and ignited some complaints about nepotism.

“I don’t think anyone’s surprised to see Donald Trump have family members close and have them in very important positions," said Lara Trump, pointing out he long did that in businesses and during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

She would be one of the highest-profile family members involved in the 2024 election. Ivanka Trump, the former president’s oldest daughter, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who served as top White House advisers, stepped away from public roles following the 2020 election.

There is some precedent for Lara Trump’s selection: Maureen Reagan, daughter of President Ronald Reagan, was elected co-chair in 1987, during her father’s second term.

Lara Trump was involved in both of Trump’s previous campaigns, leading outreach efforts to women, serving as a television surrogate, fundraising and interacting with the RNC. The former president approached her about the job a couple months ago.

“It kind of became obvious that I was the best fit," she said, outlining ambitious fundraising goals and a push to maximize mail-in and early voting. She has spent recent days calling RNC members to outline those plans.

Fight over legal bills

She experienced controversy even before stepping into the role. Asked by reporters last month if the RNC should be paying Trump’s legal bills, Lara Trump said she wasn’t sure what the rules were, given she hadn’t taken the position yet. Then someone asked if paying his bills was of general interest to Republican voters.

“People are furious right now when they see the attacks against him," she replied. "They feel it’s an attack not just on Donald Trump, but on this country. So yeah, I think that is a big interest to people, absolutely."

The RNC has paid some of Trump’s legal bills in the past, but is prohibited by law from doing so now that he is a candidate. Both the Trump campaign and Lara Trump have since clarified that it won’t happen. “The answer is no to that," she said in the interview.

Some RNC members aren’t convinced, though an effort to formally prohibit such use of party dollars failed to gain traction for a vote at the RNC meeting here. “We should spend our money on winning elections," said Henry Barbour, a committee member from Mississippi, who proposed the measure.“It’s important we have this conversation."

Nikki Haley, who suspended her campaign Wednesday to win the Republican presidential nomination, has criticized Trump’s takeover of the party committee even before he is formally the nominee and notes his campaign has already paid tens of millions for his legal bills. “He’s going to make the RNC his own legal slush fund," she said this week.

Trump’s takeover

It has been a rocky stretch for the RNC and its relationship with the former president. Trump had grown increasingly displeased with the current chair, Ronna McDaniel, as fundraising lagged and she resisted killing off GOP primary debates. Trump didn’t participate in them, citing his wide lead over what was once more than a dozen challengers.

RNC members today are expected to replace McDaniel with Whatley, while Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, will serve as chief operating officer. Whatley grew in Trump’s favor because he echoes the former president’s false assertion the 2020 election was rigged. He will focus at the RNC on election integrity issues.

When a reporter in South Carolina asked Lara Trump if she thinks Biden was legitimately elected she replied, “Me personally, no." She framed the coming election as not one of right vs. left but a battle of good vs. evil.

Lara Trump’s two overarching responsibilities are expected to be effectively serving as the face of the party in media appearances and fundraising. She says the RNC will need to raise a half-billion dollars before the election to ensure victory for Trump and other Republicans. She is also planning to scrutinize RNC spending and arrangements with vendors, reviewing every contract.

“We have to convince people that this is an entity that is going to use every penny of every dollar towards winning," she said. “We are championing the causes you care about."

Despite the former president’s threat to banish anyone who contributed to Haley, the RNC will pursue all dollars. “I think people understand what’s at stake," Lara Trump said. She is also planning to focus on early and mail-in voting, a goal shared by the Trump campaign despite the candidate’s continued unfounded assertion that such voting is plagued with fraud.

“We have to attack that, we have to play that game as well as if not better than the Democrats, because they really do excel in those spaces," she said.

From North Carolina to New York

A North Carolina native, Lara Trump studied communications in college and held internships in local television news before moving to New York to study at the French Culinary Institute, selling cakes from her apartment. She then landed a job as a producer for “Inside Edition." She met Eric Trump in New York and first encountered Donald Trump during a U.S. Open tennis match in 2008. The billionaire eased her nervousness by offering her some ice cream.

She and Eric Trump married in 2014 at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Fla. The couple and their young children reside in Palm Beach County, not far from Donald Trump Jr. Lara Trump will still live in Florida, but will have an office in Washington where the RNC is based.

In 2021, she contemplated a U.S. Senate bid in North Carolina, but ultimately passed and became a paid contributor on Fox News, a contract that ended when her father-in-law became a candidate again in late 2022. She now hosts an online show called “The Right View."

Lara Trump is active on social media, and her Instagram account, with 1.6 million followers, features a mix of family life, work and glamour shots.

She is an avid athlete and dabbles in music, recording a country version of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down" last year that drew polarizing reviews. She also sells $47 “MAGA" hats styled with a Barbie theme. Last week, she announced a children’s book, “The Never-Give-Up Pup."

For now, she is focused on one thing: the election. “We’ve got a lot of work to do and a little time to do it," she said. “And I plan on giving it everything I have."

Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com and John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com