Liam Donovan

I joined NPR‘s A Martinez on Morning Edition to discuss the Trump campaign’s sudden annexation of the Republican National Committee.

NPR’s A Martinez talks with Republican strategist Liam Donovan about former President Donald Trump’s tightening grip on the Republican National Committee.

</p> <p>Listen to the full interview <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/15/1238741346/after-a-dramatic-overhaul-whats-next-for-the-republican-national-committee">here</a>.</p> </div> <div class="entry-utils group"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/npr-after-a-dramatic-overhaul-whats-next-for-the-rnc/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a> <ul class="socials"> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://lpdonovan.com/npr-after-a-dramatic-overhaul-whats-next-for-the-rnc/" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-facebook"></i></a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/share?url=http://lpdonovan.com/npr-after-a-dramatic-overhaul-whats-next-for-the-rnc/" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-twitter"></i></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Flpdonovan.com%2Fnpr-after-a-dramatic-overhaul-whats-next-for-the-rnc%2F" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-linkedin"></i></a></li> </ul> </div> </article> <article id="entry-34203" class="entry post-34203 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-articles" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" itemprop="blogPost"> <div class="entry-meta entry-meta-top"> <p class="entry-categories"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/category/articles/" rel="category tag">Articles</a> </p> </div> <h2 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/politico-mag-mitch-mcconnell-hero-or-villain/">POLITICO Mag: Mitch McConnell: Hero or Villain?</a> </h2> <div class="entry-meta entry-meta-bottom"> <time class="entry-date" itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2024-03-01T13:58:00-05:00">March 1, 2024</time> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/politico-mag-mitch-mcconnell-hero-or-villain/#respond" class="entry-comments-no">No Comments</a> </div> <div class="entry-content" itemprop="text"> <p>I was asked to contribute to an “expert roundup” for <em>POLITICO Magazine</em> on McConnell’s retirement. It’s interesting mix of admirers, haters, and notable formers including a Speaker, a McConnell chief, a Reid staffer, multiple Kentucky statewide elected officials alongside various pundits, politicos, and professors.</p> <p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/01/mitch-mcconnell-expert-roundup-00144232">Their version</a> clipped what I thought was the upshot of my piece, so I put the third paragraph on <a href="https://lpdonovan.substack.com/p/the-old-crow-in-winter">my substack</a> (and below), along with a callback to an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/us/politics/mitch-mcconnell-kentucky.html">earlier profile</a> I participated in.</p> <p>My submission:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"> <p><strong>M</strong>itch McConnell will depart his post as GOP leader later this year an icon to his allies and an archvillain to his enemies — and he wouldn’t have it any other way. What else can you say about a man who takes such obvious relish in being cast as the grim reaper of the Senate? Who not only collects unflattering political cartoons, but displays them on his wall. Who gamely plays the mirthless baddie, serving alternatively as primary pin cushion and general election shield. Whose egoless, unsentimental devotion to power and the wielding thereof remains the hallmark of his record-setting tenure at the helm of the Republican Conference.</p> <p>His exit is bittersweet, both for himself and for the GOP. His single most consequential act as leader — and make no mistake, the election-year blockade of Merrick Garland was the most audacious decision in the history of congressional leadership — helped usher in a president who would cement his legacy, transform his party and ultimately confound his ability to lead it in any meaningful way, an irony that is surely not lost on McConnell.</p> <p>For better or worse, the Republican Party McConnell leaves behind is not the one he enlisted in so many decades ago as a young Louisville attorney. It’s not even the one he found when he reached the top rung nearly two decades ago. It is a party in transition, one that doesn’t quite know where it wants to go or what it wants to stand for, except in boisterous, disdainful, reflexive opposition to the political class and its sensibilities. McConnell’s decision is as much a function of this reality as it is an acknowledgement that time has finally caught up to him. To his credit—unlike certain politicians—he is stepping aside for a new generation of leaders to take the reins. Love him or hate him, the institution will be worse off for his relegation.</p> </blockquote> <p></p> </div> <div class="entry-utils group"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/politico-mag-mitch-mcconnell-hero-or-villain/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a> <ul class="socials"> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://lpdonovan.com/politico-mag-mitch-mcconnell-hero-or-villain/" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-facebook"></i></a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/share?url=http://lpdonovan.com/politico-mag-mitch-mcconnell-hero-or-villain/" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-twitter"></i></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Flpdonovan.com%2Fpolitico-mag-mitch-mcconnell-hero-or-villain%2F" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-linkedin"></i></a></li> </ul> </div> </article> <article id="entry-34205" class="entry post-34205 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-quotes" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" itemprop="blogPost"> <div class="entry-meta entry-meta-top"> <p class="entry-categories"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/category/quotes/" rel="category tag">Quotes</a> </p> </div> <h2 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/ny-mag-the-swiftboater-coming-for-biden/">NY Mag: The Swiftboater Coming for Biden</a> </h2> <div class="entry-meta entry-meta-bottom"> <time class="entry-date" itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2024-02-22T11:42:00-05:00">February 22, 2024</time> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/ny-mag-the-swiftboater-coming-for-biden/#respond" class="entry-comments-no">No Comments</a> </div> <div class="entry-content" itemprop="text"> <p>I spoke to David Freedlander for his <em>New York Magazine </em>piece on the new-look Trump campaign and its formidable senior staff:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"> <p>Trump has notoriously liked setting aides against each other, vying for his affection, like when he made Reince Priebus his first White House chief of staff and Steve Bannon “chief strategist” with both of them leaving the new administration within seven months. But people close to Trump today say that even he is tired of the antics, and with the 2024 election now possibly determining whether or not he goes to prison, he has opted for a more professional approach.</p> <p>“2016 was a totally shambolic operation, just a guy on a plane surrounded by a rotating cast of jokers,” says Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist. “By 2020, you had a more professionalized operation, but <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/former-trump-campaign-manager-brad-parscale-hospitalized.html">the campaign was led by his web designer until the home stretch</a>. He came close with the B-team, and now we get to see what happens when you bring in some of the most shrewd, calculating, and ruthless operators in the party.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Read the full piece <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-campaign-chris-lacivita-swift-boat-veteran.html">here</a>.</p> </div> <div class="entry-utils group"> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com/ny-mag-the-swiftboater-coming-for-biden/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a> <ul class="socials"> <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://lpdonovan.com/ny-mag-the-swiftboater-coming-for-biden/" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-facebook"></i></a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/share?url=http://lpdonovan.com/ny-mag-the-swiftboater-coming-for-biden/" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-twitter"></i></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Flpdonovan.com%2Fny-mag-the-swiftboater-coming-for-biden%2F" target="_blank" class="social-icon"><i class="fa fa-linkedin"></i></a></li> </ul> </div> </article> </div> </div> <div id="paging" class="group" ><span aria-current="page" class="page-numbers current">1</span> <a class="page-numbers" href="http://lpdonovan.com/page/2/">2</a> <a class="page-numbers" href="http://lpdonovan.com/page/3/">3</a> <span class="page-numbers dots">…</span> <a class="page-numbers" href="http://lpdonovan.com/page/117/">117</a> <a class="next page-numbers" href="http://lpdonovan.com/page/2/">Next »</a></div> </main> </div> <div class="col-md-4"> <div class="sidebar sidebar-right" role="complementary" itemtype="http://schema.org/WPSideBar" itemscope="itemscope"> <aside id="ci-about-4" class=" widget group widget_ci-about"><h3 class="widget-title">About Liam</h3><div class="widget_about group"><p class="widget_about_avatar"><img src="http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/LPDFNC-200x200.jpg" class="img-round" alt="" /></p><p>Liam Donovan is frequent commentator and writer on national politics. In a previous life he spent four years working to elect a GOP majority to the United States Senate. He currently works in Washington, DC for a leading government relations and strategic communications firm.</p> </div></aside><aside id="custom_html-3" class="widget_text widget group widget_custom_html"><div class="textwidget custom-html-widget"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=lpdonovan" class="twitter-follow-button">Follow @lpdonovan</a></div></aside><aside id="twitter_timeline-5" class="widget group widget_twitter_timeline"><a class="twitter-timeline" data-width="275" data-theme="light" data-border-color="#e8e8e8" data-tweet-limit="5" data-lang="EN" data-partner="jetpack" data-chrome="noheader nofooter transparent" href="https://twitter.com/lpdonovan" href="https://twitter.com/lpdonovan">My Tweets</a></aside></div> </div> </div> </div> <footer id="footer"> <div class="site-bar group"> <nav class="nav"> <ul id="menu-menu-2" class="navigation"><li class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom current-menu-item current_page_item menu-item-home menu-item-136"><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/" aria-current="page">Home</a></li> <li class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-65"><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/about/">About Liam</a></li> <li class="menu-item menu-item-type-taxonomy menu-item-object-category menu-item-222"><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/category/articles/">Articles</a></li> <li class="menu-item menu-item-type-taxonomy menu-item-object-category menu-item-226"><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/category/media/">Media</a></li> <li class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-93"><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/contact/">Contact</a></li> <li class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-68"><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/links/">Links</a></li> </ul> </nav> <div class="site-tools"> <ul class="socials"> <li><a href="http://twitter.com/lpdonovan" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-twitter"></i></a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpdonovan/" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-linkedin"></i></a></li> <li><a href="http://lpdonovan.com/feed/" target="_blank"><i class="fa fa-rss"></i></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="site-logo"> <h3> <a href="http://lpdonovan.com"> Liam Donovan </a> </h3> </div> </footer> </div> </div> </div> </div> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/superfish.js?ver=1.7.5' id='olsen-light-superfish-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.matchHeight.js?ver=1.3.2' id='olsen-light-matchHeight-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/slick.js?ver=1.5.7' id='olsen-light-slick-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.mmenu.oncanvas.js?ver=5.2.0' id='olsen-light-mmenu-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.mmenu.offcanvas.js?ver=5.2.0' id='olsen-light-mmenu-offcanvas-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.mmenu.navbars.js?ver=5.2.0' id='olsen-light-mmenu-navbars-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.mmenu.autoheight.js?ver=5.2.0' id='olsen-light-mmenu-autoheight-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.fitvids.js?ver=1.1' id='olsen-light-fitVids-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/jquery.magnific-popup.js?ver=1.0.0' id='olsen-light-magnific-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/themes/olsen-light/js/scripts.js?ver=1.3.2' id='olsen-light-front-scripts-js'></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://lpdonovan.com/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/_inc/build/twitter-timeline.min.js?ver=4.0.0' id='jetpack-twitter-timeline-js'></script> <script defer type='text/javascript' src='https://stats.wp.com/e-202417.js' id='jetpack-stats-js'></script> <script id="jetpack-stats-js-after" type="text/javascript"> _stq = window._stq || []; _stq.push([ "view", {v:'ext',blog:'118102612',post:'0',tz:'-4',srv:'lpdonovan.com',j:'1:12.6.1'} ]); _stq.push([ "clickTrackerInit", "118102612", "0" ]); </script> </body> </html>

NPR: After a Dramatic Overhaul, What’s Next for the RNC?