Is the RNC about to back Trump?

A new report from the Dispatch claimed that David Bossie, a Republican National Committee member and former advisor to the Trump campaign, had drafted a resolution that would effectively end the primary and put the RNC symbolically behind former president Donald Trump. The draft resolution was immediately met with concerns that only two states had voted in the GOP primary and that the RNC should preside over a fair process, although it would not have ended the primary nor changed how state parties ran their elections. But remaining GOP contenders Nikki Haley and Trump both came out against the plan, with Trump posting on Truth Social that he wanted to win the “old-fashioned” way by earning the required number of delegates to secure the party’s nomination at the RNC’s convention. Bossie withdrew the resolution after Trump’s post.

Although the question of whether the RNC might vote to officially back Trump before the conclusion of the primary is now nullified, Bossie’s proposal has raised other issues related to Trump’s relationship with the RNC and its chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel. I previously reported in The Spectator World’s January magazine how Trump was responsible for McDaniel’s elevation to her current position atop the RNC and how, now, Trump allies are the most critical of her tenure leading the party. Although she has faced several challenges to her leadership, most notably after the 2022 midterms when conservative lawyer Harmeet Dhillon ran against her re-election, McDaniel has received the repeatedly tacit endorsement of Team Trump. As one GOP strategist put it to me, Susie Wiles — a senior advisor to Trump — could call RNC committee members and get them to oust McDaniel within five minutes. Consultants I spoke to posit that Trump has been so accommodating to McDaniel because she has used RNC money to help him pay his legal fees and because he doesn’t want to give the perception that he was responsible for installing an ineffective leader.

However, there are signs that Trump is starting to sour on McDaniel. He refused to participate in any of the RNC-sanctioned primary debates, declaring himself the de facto incumbent while McDaniel argued that she had a duty to oversee a fair nomination process. McDaniel did say on television that the GOP should unite behind Trump after he defeated Nikki Haley by double digits in New Hampshire’s primary, but some Trump surrogates slammed her online for not attending the former president’s watch party in Nashua. There are whispers that the Trump campaign is not thrilled that McDaniel tried to have it both ways; pretending to be neutral in the early days of the process, and then turning around and effectively endorsing Trump after two early state victories. Either way, most GOP insiders agree that this will be McDaniel’s last term as chairwoman of the RNC — the question now is if she may be pushed out even sooner. 

-Amber Duke

On our radar

MARIANNE OUT?  Democratic presidential contender Marianne Williamson is not dropping out of the 2024 race, contrary to reports claiming she was suspending her campaign. 

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS Texas governor Greg Abbott is blocking access for federal border patrol agents to cut down the state’s razor wire at the southern border pending a February 7 court date that may settle the issue. 

LEARN TO CODE? Mass layoffs are rocking the media in early 2024, with staffers at the LA Times, Business Insider, Sports Illustrated, TIME and others facing joblessness amid the industry’s financial downturn. 

White House party crashers 

Team Biden tried to have a party to boost morale heading into the 2024 cycle, but the White House’s staff members who oppose the administration’s policy on Israel had other plans — crashing the shindig with drum circles and shrieks of condemnation of “genocide Joe.”

Their demands are simple: an end to American support for Israel. According to one protester’s recounting, “every single one of [the Biden staffers] tried to sneak away from back exits and creep through the woods to avoid being called out again, to no avail.”

Unfortunately for the protesters, their demands are backed by almost no one in America — including the Democrats. This week’s attempt by anti-Israel activists to have New Hampshire Democrats write in “ceasefire” in their party’s primary fell flatter than a misfired Palestinian rocket at a hospital in Gaza.

One of the groups protesting “Butcher Biden” is the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which is a Virginia-based organization that is the fiscal sponsor of the Palestinian BDS National Committee; according to Israel, US-designated terrorist organizations like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Senator Thom Tillis provided a helpful road map to anyone in the Biden administration who has the slightest interest in defending civilization when he told a trembling terrorist sympathizer to pound sound in the halls of the Senate this week. 

–Matthew Foldi

Meta: don’t ban kids from our apps

The kids are not alright! The Florida House passed a bill this week which would “require many platforms to prohibit anyone younger than sixteen from creating an account and require them to use a third party for age verification services,” per Politico. “At the same time, it calls on social media companies to terminate accounts for users in the state under sixteen.” It’s now under consideration in the state Senate.

It is unclear at this point which apps the bill applies to — though TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the likeliest candidates. The move follows a deluge of investigative reporting that reveals how addictive and harmful social media can be to teens — though let’s face it, it’s not all that great for adults either.

Meta has been running a campaign since November pushing Congress to take action federally: “Parents should approve their teen’s app downloads, and we support federal legislation that requires app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under sixteen download apps,” wrote Meta global head of safety Antigone Davis in a blog post. You may have seen TV ads from the same initiative on behalf of Instagram: Cockburn caught one last night. (Naturally, the tech giant chooses to identify as “Instagram” rather than the “too-corporate” Meta or the “election-ruining” Facebook.)

Of course, Meta’s solution to the problem involves Congress taking the burden of responsibility away from them — and unlike Florida’s, it still lets the kids download the apps. How convenient! -Cockburn

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