The RNC meeting will discuss the upcoming Trump merger and the fate of the chairman

In early 2021, as former President Donald J. Trump left the White House unhappy, in a private conversation with Ronna McDaniel, the head of the Republican National Committee, he raised the possibility of running for the White House again in 2024, not as a Republican, but as a third party candidate.

Mr. Trump quickly scrapped the idea. Three years later, the rest is almost history. After his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire last month, Trump is poised to once again become the official standard-bearer of the Republican Party.

Despite a sometimes fraught history — most party insiders were wary of Trump when he first won the Republican nomination in 2016 — the former president and his party are now largely aligned, a sign of how much Republicanism has evolved over the past eight years is changed.

As members of the Republican National Committee gathered in Las Vegas this week for their winter meeting, the party apparatus's threatened remarriage with Mr. Trump provoked only a hint of resistance. Instead, much of the drama and discussion on the sidelines focused on how Trump would try to put his stamp on the party's leadership.

Would it be a large-scale takeover? What would be Mrs. McDaniel's fate? And what would all this mean for the party's strained finances?

One of the central questions on the sidelines of the Las Vegas meeting was whether Ms. McDaniel, still the party chairman, would stay until the election, when her term ends. Mr. Trump first appointed Ms. McDaniel in 2016 and has long worked closely and directly with her. Privately, however, the former president has begun to question the direction of the RNC under her leadership, according to a person who heard his comments. For her part, Ms. McDaniel has indicated that she would step aside if the Republican candidate so chooses.

The night Mr. Trump won New Hampshire, Ms. McDaniel declared on national television that Mr. Trump would be the “eventual” nominee and that it was important to rally behind him. Ms. McDaniel's comment irritated some of the party's more institutional voices, though even supporters of Nikki Haley, Trump's only major remaining rival, acknowledged that her path to the nomination was dangerously steep.

Shortly after New Hampshire, one of Ms. McDaniel's top aides traveled to Palm Beach to meet with Trump team leadership as part of talks about how an integration might unfold. Plans are already in the works to set up a joint fundraising operation, and a temporary nominee fund without Trump's name has already been established. And Mr. Trump has signed two grassroots emails in recent days that aim to engage supporters and raise money for the RNC.

Among the names that have been more widely discussed as chairman of a potential post-McDaniel party is Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and the general counsel of the RNC. But Mr. Trump or any candidate could nominate anyone, although the final choice would have to be ratified by the commission's 168 members. Drew McKissick, the chairman of the Republican Party of South Carolina, serves as the party's co-chair along with Ms. McDaniel.

Ms. McDaniel, who was re-elected by a landslide in early 2023, remains popular among RNC members. “I have every reason to believe that Ronna will serve as chair until the end of her term,” said Richard Porter, the Illinois national committeeman who oversees the party's resolution committee.

In 2016, Trump's inexperienced team leaned heavily on the RNC and did not replace its leadership. For the 2020 campaign, Mr. Trump's team held the White House and worked closely with the party from the start. In 2024, if and when Mr. Trump becomes the presumptive nominee, his team could send one or more top officials to functionally take over party operations, in addition to — or instead of — replacing the chairman.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the RNC also declined to comment.

Just as committee members were meeting in the smoky Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, the party was forced to reveal the dismal state of its finances in a report to the Federal Election Commission. It showed the Republican National Committee was in its weakest cash position in years: just $8 million in cash, with $1.8 million in debt.

Behind closed doors, the party's executive committee had authorized a line of credit that could potentially be tapped — a common practice, but one seen as more urgent given the cash situation — as party officials drew up a frugal budget for the coming year. The total revenue projected in the document was just under $200 million — a fraction of what was raised in 2020, according to several people who saw it. However, a party official noted that the document did not contain any projection of what would happen. which will be raised in consultation with the final nominee, which is expected to be substantial.

“It's been a real challenge for the Republican Party at the national level to raise money,” said Steven Friars, a national committeeman from Rhode Island.

“Some people believe that if Trump becomes the nominee, it will solve a lot of our problems,” said Mr. Friars, who is supporting Ms. Haley. “But I think there's also a counterpoint to that, which is, once Trump becomes the nominee, there's going to be a whole group of people who used to give to the party and they're going to say, 'I don't give to the party.'”

Ms. McDaniel made her case to members that the financial challenges were spread across the GOP ecosystem as the party publicly announced that January 2024 was a stronger month at $2 million than any month in 2023.

“Raise your hand if you had a great fundraising year last year,” Ms. McDaniel told members at a behind-closed-doors breakfast, according to two attendees. Only one person raised a hand.

Still, the weak cash report provided new fodder for Ms. McDaniel's critics. Some right-wing groups have loudly called for Ms. McDaniel's ouster and have even tried to gain seats on the committee to influence the direction of the party.

“This is one of the worst years we've ever seen,” said Arizona Republican committeeman Tyler Bowyer, who has been a McDaniel critic. “Given the financial circumstances the Republican Party is in from top to bottom, it makes perfect sense for the Trump campaign to be at the forefront of that merger.”

Mr. Bowyer is also the Chief Operating Officer of Turning Point Action, a group that organized its own conference in Las Vegas ahead of the official RNC meeting – calling it the Restoring National Confidence Summit – or RNC for short.

The counter-event and the criticism of Ms. McDaniel have irritated some on the committee.

“That worries me when your friends don't help build you up and then wonder why you're being torn down,” said Iowa GOP committeewoman Tamara Scott.

Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, who has supported Ms. McDaniel's removal, said he was looking for entirely new leadership that could “change the deep state of the RNC,” floating names of Trump family members like Donald Trump Jr. or even a failed 2024 candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy.

“The grassroots donors have completely dried up — they don't want to support the RNC,” Mr. Kirk said, arguing that new leadership would inspire new donors.

Some have pushed to align the party more fully with Mr. Trump as the 2024 Republican primaries are still underway.

Last week, a Trump ally, David Bossie, the Republican committeeman from Maryland and Mr. Trump's deputy campaign manager in 2016, circulated a resolution declaring Mr. Trump the “presumptive nominee,” but it was quickly withdrawn after Mr. Trump himself had said a social media post that he did not want to go through.

“I believe that for the sake of PARTY UNITY, they should NOT proceed with this plan,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Oscar Brock, the Republican committeeman from Tennessee who has been a Trump critic, said he had complained to Ms. McDaniel about her decision to declare Mr. Trump the “final” nominee — “she recognized that I had a right to be frustrated to become'. he said — but even he still understood the tricky math that awaited Ms. Haley.

“Ironically, we politicians need to listen to the voters,” Mr Brock said. “That's how it should be.”

Maggie Haberman And Jonathan Swan reporting contributed.