The RNC Is Paying This Trump Family Member Six Figures

Forbes

When Donald Trump’s loyalists installed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chair of the Republican National Committee in March, it helped the former president further solidify his control over the GOP. It also put more Republican donor dollars into the pocket of a Trump. Forbes staff writer Zach Everson joins "Forbes Talks" to discuss.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2024/07/18/rnc-lara-trump-salary-six-figures/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is my Forbes

00:06colleague, staff writer Zach Everson. Zach, thanks for coming on.

00:12Thanks for having me on again, Brittany. Appreciate it.

00:14The RNC wrapped up in Milwaukee this week, and you are reporting, quote, yet another

00:19Trump is converting donor funds into personal income. Talk to us about who.

00:26This time it is Lara Trump. As we know, she is the co-chair of the RNC, which is the number

00:31two position, having just been voted in there a few months ago. And looking through the

00:36latest campaign finance reports, you see that the RNC is paying her what looks like it'll

00:41be an annual salary of $163,000. So, you know, certainly something that looks competitive

00:48and a fair salary, assuming she's doing the job that she was elected to do. But it's also,

00:54just another example of a Trump family member pocketing GOP donor cash.

01:00So what is her specific history of being paid donor funds?

01:06So in this case, this is the first time her name has actually showed up in FEC records

01:12as a recipient. Does not mean it's the first time she's received donor funds, though.

01:17Back in 2020, HuffPost reported that the Trump campaign was paying her,

01:23along with Kim Guilfoyle, salaries, but they were not being paid directly. Instead,

01:28they were kind of being paid as like subcontractors almost.

01:31The money was going to then campaign manager Brad Parscale's company,

01:34which was then in turn passing the money out to Lara Trump and Kim Guilfoyle.

01:41I do want to take a couple steps back here. And aside from being the daughter

01:45in law of the former president, who exactly is Lara Trump?

01:49She is, well, she's married to Eric, and she is a former TV personality.

01:54I believe she was a producer with Inside Edition.

01:58She also toyed with running for Senate in 2020, I believe it was, did not end up running.

02:04But she's been pretty active in the campaign. Most notably, she was hosting a

02:10online show on, I believe it was on the president's Facebook page several years ago,

02:16where it was like a daily news show, but done specifically just for the campaign.

02:20The reason the campaign was paying her previously was that she, I think her title was a

02:25senior advisor or something along those lines.

02:28And so if we remember RNC chair history,

02:31Ronna McDaniel was actually the chair for a while. Now there's co-chairs,

02:36Lara Trump, as well as Michael Whatley. So how does her six-figure salary compare to his?

02:42It's significantly less. So it's one of the things that's confusing is that

02:45it's the second person in charge is the co-chair. There's no actually,

02:48there aren't two co-chairs. There's a chair and then a co-chair.

02:52He makes significantly more than that, but it seems like he might also have more on his plate.

02:56He pulls in about $330,000 annually, according to FEC filings.

03:03But he's also the RNC's general counsel. So you're not just getting somebody who's heading

03:07the group, but you're also getting an attorney there as well.

03:11And what about her counterpart at the DNC, chair of that, Jamie Harrison?

03:18Yes. Jamie Harrison's actually a little bit higher up than where she is because he is the

03:21head of that. There was no applicable person to compare it to in the DNC

03:26because all of their, their number two person is called the vice chair.

03:30And they have like six of them. And I believe five of them were elected officials who

03:35you know, have other jobs. There was one other person there whose name didn't pop up,

03:39but Jamie Harrison makes $177,000 a year in his job, which these days seems to largely be getting

03:46into Twitter fights with Nate Silver. And you've reported about this before,

03:51but remind us how Donald Trump as well as his family has turned donor funds in the past into

03:57personal income. So the RNC has forked over at least $3 million to Trump's businesses since 2016,

04:07which is a whopping sum, you know, to be honest. Especially when you compare it to the fact that

04:13prior to him assuming control of the party in 2016, they had only spent $39,000. So, you know,

04:19Trump has businesses all over the place. They weren't going to them until he was in charge

04:25of the party. So they, they paid his businesses $3 million. And then Donald Trump Jr. also has

04:31gotten in on the act again, not, not directly, but in 2019 and 2020, the RNC bought a total of about

04:39$400,000 worth of both of his books. So, you know, he didn't get all 400,000 of that. There are

04:45obviously some costs involved with books, but he would have gotten some of it in addition to getting

04:50a boost on the charts that would have certainly helped him with a bestseller list.

04:54And is there any indication that this is going to continue as the campaign heads into November?

05:02No, yes. I mean, she's, she's still in that job. So it seems like Laura Trump is still

05:06obviously going to be bringing in a salary and there is no sign whatsoever that the Trump's

05:11plan on stopping billing the RNC and other political entities for this. So I suspect

05:18we will continue to see this for as long as Trump's are high up in the party.

05:25Zach Everson per usual. Thanks for your reporting.

05:29Thanks for having me on again.

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Transcript

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