Nepobabies in the White House

By Michelle Cottle

NEW YORK: Well, that was fast! Donald Trump is not yet the Republican nominee for president, but already we’re witnessing a resurgence of the in-your-face nepotism that brought us last decade’s cringe-worthy reality show: Javanka in the West Wing. Like so much about Trump 2.0, this round of packing institutions with puppets is looking even dingier and more shameless than the last, starting with the former president endorsing Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, to be co-chair of the Republican National Committee. “Lara is a talented communicator and is dedicated to all that MAGA stands for,” gushed Trump of his son Eric’s wife. “She has told me she wants to accept this challenge and would be GREAT!”

This does indeed sound like a sweet gig for Ms. Trump, who has spent the past few years in search of an appropriate outlet for her talents. In the months after Trump’s 2020 election loss, she toyed with running for the U.S. Senate in her native state, North Carolina, but that never quite gelled. In 2021, she signed on as a contributor to Fox News, only to have the network cut her loose the next year when her father-in-law began his latest White House run. (The network has a policy of not employing anyone closely linked to a candidate.) She’s piddled around hosting a conservative podcast. She’s busied herself with pet-themed charities. But with her paterfamilias moving to make the Republican Party a wholly controlled fief of MAGA, it makes sense to have an actual member of the family in the top leadership of the party organisation.

One might have assumed Trump would have been sated by giving the heave-ho to his once-loyal lackey, Ronna McDaniel, and endorsing Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina state party, to be the Republican National Committee’s main chairman. Whatley has proved his MAGA chops with his energetic embrace of Trump’s election-fraud baloney. Assuming Whatley is elected to the post, the odds of him exhibiting any independent judgment in his new role are next to nil. Still, when it comes to the installation of blindly loyal minions, Trump is a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. And, after all, family is family.

Now, I want to avoid climbing too far up on my high horse. Trump’s moving to put his people in the upper echelons of the R.N.C. is, to varying degrees, pretty common for the presidential nominees, or even presumptive nominees, of both parties. Hillary Clinton did a bit of it at the Democratic National Committee in 2016, earlier and more aggressively in the nominating process than many people found seemly. Trump isn’t shattering a norm so much as taking things to a disquieting extreme. The truly Trumpian wrinkle here is that the MAGA king doesn’t care about any qualification other than blind loyalty. That whole “best people” nonsense from his first presidential go-round has fallen by the wayside for now. Trump could be as dumb as a brick (I have no reason to think so) and he’d still consider her the perfect co-head for his RNC — arguably all the more perfect, since people lacking their own vision tend to be easier to control.

From what we have heard about Trump’s plans for a second term — an administration defined by total subservience — there seems to be a rich opportunity for him to put other family members to use should he win in November. This could be especially timely considering the legal mess in which the family company has been embroiled of late. And the family foundation has already been dissolved, following its own legal kerfuffle. What could be more obvious than for Trump to put the extended clan to work in the White House?