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PARTY PURGE

How Trump Iced Ronna McDaniel, Completing MAGA’s Takeover of the GOP

His effort to oust the RNC chair is all but a done deal. We talked to a journalist who’s well sourced in the party about what’s really going on at the highest levels of Republican power.

 RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel
David McNew/Getty Images
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel

This week, Donald Trump announced that he wants Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel replaced with a loyalist: Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina Republican Party. Behind the jockeying looms a very big story: the Trump-MAGA takeover of the GOP, and the challenges ahead of the party as it nominates someone facing multiple criminal indictments. We talked to Marc Caputo, a reporter for The Bulwark and author of a great new piece on McDaniel’s ouster, who helped us unravel the mysteries of GOP politics in the MAGA era.