Trump's handpicked party chair faces a rebellion after midterm losses test president's grip on GOP

NEW YORK (AP) — A nascent rebellion is underway against President Donald Trump's handpicked chairman at the Republican National Committee, and it’s already getting ugly.

Some members are calling for a forensic audit of spending decisions, including hair and makeup services for Trump and other officials, as well as the hiring of the daughter of Trump's former chief of staff. Feuding Republicans are leaking emails and opposition research on rival factions. The White House is threatening to cut off fundraising assistance if the rebels don’t fall in line.

The emerging fight, which will shape the 2028 presidential nominating contest, represents a rare challenge to Trump's dominance, even after the party's worst midterm performance in a generation. Despite the broad losses, Republican leaders across Washington have shown little desire to move past Trump and have largely stood behind his most unpopular policies.

But inside the Republican National Committee, an organization of 168 members elected from every state who oversee the party’s national political operation, a small and growing collection of concerned Republicans are backing an attempt to depose Joe Gruters. Trump wants to keep him in charge.

The dissidents are rallying behind Kentucky’s KC Crosbie, the RNC's second-in-command. She launched her bid just two days after the Nov. 3 election in a letter that drew the fury of both the White House and Gruters' allies.

Crosbie remains a vocal Trump supporter who backs his “Make America Great Again” agenda, but her opponents view her gambit as a direct challenge to the president and his power.

“Our job is to elect Republicans broadly, not to support one man all the time," said RNC member Oscar Brock of Tennessee, who is supporting Crosbie’s candidacy. He said that requires a change in leadership because “there’s so much frustration that Chairman Gruters didn’t pull his weight in this election.”

In her letter, Crosbie described the midterms as “a serious setback" and called for the RNC to provide “an honest account” of what went wrong.

Crosbie declined to be interviewed.

The leadership election will be held in January at the RNC’s winter meeting in Arizona.

Some would-be Crosbie supporters privately acknowledge they're worried about a backlash from the White House, especially with Stephen Miller taking over as Trump's chief of staff. Others believe in the committee's tradition of having presidents pick their own party chiefs.

Gruters also has vocal backers.

Lauren LePage, an RNC member from Maine, praised Gruters' leadership and efforts to help her father, Paul LePage, flip a congressional seat — a rare bright spot for Republicans this cycle.

“From my perspective, as chairman, he did his job," she said, adding that Trump's endorsement is “something that the committee should take very seriously.”

The Republicans who have lined up behind Crosbie insist a leadership change is needed to send a clear message that the party will do things differently after losses even in Republican strongholds like Texas , South Carolina and Mississippi .

Patti Lyman, an RNC member from Virginia, said it would be “catastrophic” and “insulting” to the party’s base “to keep the same leadership and pretend that we don’t need to do anything different, that we don’t need new players and a new plan.”

Sue Cienki, an RNC committee member from Rhode Island, predicted that Crosbie would have the backing of at least two members from 10 states — a total of 20 — at the committee's January meeting. That's the minimum required for a successful nomination.

Trump and senior White House officials were livid about Crosbie’s Nov. 5 letter and the fact that they were given no heads-up. The president soon released a lengthy statement on his Truth Social social media platform hailing Gruters as a “MAGA Warrior” and giving him his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Trump is expected to play a central role in picking the party's next presidential nominee.

Allies of Gruters say a leadership change now would put the RNC at a severe disadvantage heading into the next presidential cycle because a new team would need time to get up to speed. They say friction between the president and the committee's leadership would curtail their ability to organize and raise money.

They also reject Crosbie's call for a postelection review, which they said would do little more than consume six months rehashing the past and put all their grievances on paper.

Gruters spent much of this week holding private phone conversations with committee members. Those who participated in the calls said Gruters listened to their grievances, but said little about what he would do differently.

The opposition to Gruters has focused on the RNC's spending decisions under him. Republicans had a massive fundraising advantage and still had deep losses.

“There’s clearly a groundswell of support for a forensic audit,” said Brock, the RNC member from Tennessee.

In a letter to RNC members sent Thursday night and obtained by The Associated Press, Gruters acknowledged concerns about spending and other issues.

Gruters defended a $22,500 expenditure for hospitality space at the Presidents Cup, a golf event, saying the space was offered to major donors and "resulted in $2.5 million in renewed contributions to the RNC.”

He also addressed “a brief contract” between the RNC and Caroline Wiles, a longtime Republican consultant, who is the daughter of Susie Wiles, Trump's former chief of staff. Gruters said she was hired by his predecessor at the committee, Michael Whatley.

“While I have no reason to doubt Caroline Wiles’s value to the RNC or Chairman Whatley’s reasons for bringing her on, this was a brief six-month engagement that ended when I was elected Chairman,” he wrote.

Gruters also defended the RNC's decision to pay for “hair and make-up services” for senior White House officials, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and former press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“This was a request made of us so that the expense did not fall to taxpayers,” Gruters wrote, adding that the beneficiaries “generously gave so much of their limited time and energies to help the RNC this cycle” and “did not ask for much of us in return, so we felt this was a request we could accommodate.”