Trump allies fire dozens of RNC staff in wake of committee leadership shake up

WASHINTON - Donald Trump's makeover of the Republican National Committee is now in full force, with layoffs of more than 60 people and plans to move some operations to South Florida.

The RNC upheaval came less than a week after party members elected a new leadership team of allies to the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The new team is sending dismissal notices to around 60 people across the RNC's political, data and communications departments, according to two people familiar with the plans. Some employees will be allowed to re-apply for their jobs.

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The new RNC also plans to move digital and fundraising teams to South Florida, near the ex-president's Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, sources said, part of an effort to align the Trump campaign with the RNC.

RNC members elected Michael Whatley as their new chair on Friday, along with the former president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chair. Whatley, a close Trump supporter, previously served as the North Carolina Republican Party state chair.

The committee shake-up highlights some concerns that the Republican Party and RNC will become a Trump-focused fundraising machine.

Some RNC delegates expressed concern that it would be used to finance Trump's massive legal bills. Trump aides said they would not do that.

The RNC has faced lagging fundraising numbers, with just around $8 million at the end of last year. The Democratic National Committee, by comparison, had about three times that amount then.

“Firing nearly one-third of your staff in a frantic mass ideological purge less than eight months before a presidential election is typically not a good sign for a political party," DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd said in a statement Tuesday, "but then again neither is posting historically weak fundraising numbers or repeatedly losing election after election."

Chris LaCivita, who now works for the RNC as well as the Trump presidential campaign, previewed the changes last week.

During the meeting in Houston at which the new leaders were elected, LaCivita told reporters that that the RNC would not look the same moving forward: "There's obviously going to be changes.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RNC lays off dozens of staff after Trump takes over committee