The chairwoman of the National Republican Committee will resign amid pressure from Trump to appoint his allies

AP

The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Ronna McDaniel, will step down on March 8, after being forced to leave the national leadership of the Republican Party as former President Donald Trump moves toward another presidential run and solidifies his control over this political organization.

Ronna McDaniel announced her decision on Monday morning through a statement.

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"I have decided to resign at our Spring Meeting on March 8th in Houston to allow our nominee to pick a chair of their choosing," McDaniel said in the statement, using the RNC acronym.

"The RNC has undergone changes in the past once we have a nominee, and it has always been my intention to follow that tradition," she noted.

The decision was not a surprise. Trump announced earlier this month that he preferred the party chairman in North Carolina, Michael Whatley, a relatively unknown veteran who has focused on the issue of election fraud in recent years, to replace McDaniel.

Trump also chose his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to serve as co-chair of the committee.

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On February 13, through a statement from his campaign office, the former president proposed Whatley as the RNC leader to replace the current chair, Ronna McDaniel, and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as deputy chair.

"Michael has been with me from the beginning, has done a great job in his home state of North Carolina, and is committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our elections so they can't be stolen," Trump said in the statement distributed by his campaign office.