Lara Trump denies that RNC is shutting minority community centers

Republican National Committee (RNC) co-Chair Lara Trump denied reports from earlier this week that the newly staffed committee shut down its community centers focused on minority voter outreach.

Multiple outlets reported Monday that the RNC is cutting staff across multiple departments, just days after the committee convened in Houston to approve the new leadership team headed by former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley and the new co-chair, former President Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara. The cuts also slashed positions of the staff working on community centers that helped out with the committee’s outreach to minority voters. 

Trump denied the reports Thursday during her appearance on Fox News’s “The Story” with anchor Martha MacCallum. 

“Yeah, well, actually, we are keeping those all open,” Trump said Thursday. “I can report that today. So that is incorrect.” 

Trump emphasized that the RNC is paying “close attention” to minority communities since they “have been significantly impacted by the bad policies of [President] Joe Biden.” She added that the committee is focusing on minority voter outreach in light of Thursday’s reaction to New York Times/Sienna College poll findings that showed the former president having a bump in support with Black and Latino voters.

“I can assure you: At the RNC and at the Trump campaign, this is a wide-open tent,” she said. “And the idea that this is a party closed off to anyone is false. We want everyone to come in. We want everyone to vote, because we want everyone in this country to succeed. So those reports are not correct.” 

Late last week, Trump said the RNC’s top priority is “protecting the vote” in 2024 elections.

“That is a huge problem. We have three pillars that we need to focus on at the RNC to ensure victory on Nov. 5: turn out the vote, protect the vote and raise money. But I would argue that maybe the most important of those three is protecting the vote, election integrity,” she said.