Get ready for the next clash of conservatives.
When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley announced Thursday he is entering the race for Senate in North Carolina, he did more than put a second high-profile name in the running in the Tar Heel State.
He set up what could be a bruising battle for leadership of the GOP on a nationwide scale.
In a July 24 post on the social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump, the hands-down heavyweight of party politics, heartily endorsed Whatley in the North Carolina race, and at the same time endorsed Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, the party’s current national treasurer, to step into Whatley’s place.
But there’s already a groundswell of opposition to Gruters. And one of his most vocal opponents is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
As the Sunshine State news website Florida Politics noted in a July 16 report, DeSantis slammed Gruters in a news conference where DeSantis appointed Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to the post of Florida chief financial officer.
It’s a job Gruters has been running for since May of last year.
While appointing a rival to the vacant post, DeSantis made his distaste for Gruters painfully clear.
“If George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO?’ my response would be, no, I can’t do that without betraying the voters that elected me,” DeSantis said, according to Florida Politics.
He accused Gruters of siding with teachers’ unions in battles with the state government, as well as supporting the marijuana industry (a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational use failed in November).
According to the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis and Gruters clashed over a bill Gruters supported that would have put the job of chief immigration officer in the state in the hands of the state’s agriculture commissioner.
In a post on the social media platform X, DeSantis called the bill “truly contemptible” and described it as “amnesty.”
This successful operation under Operation Vigilant Sentry would have been illegal under the Perez/Gruters amnesty bill that I vetoed earlier this year.
It was a truly contemptible piece of legislation that would have allowed these illegals to pour in on our shores with impunity. https://t.co/bj5MBwQjww
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 24, 2025
And as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported in January 2020, Gruters had a history of sponsoring pro-gay legislation in the state before appearing to reverse course.
“I’m an ally of the LGBTQ community,” he told the newspaper.
More recently, in April, Gruters made the wrong kind of headlines when the U.K.’s Daily Mail, a British outlet with a major North American presence, revealed he was a follower of 60 accounts on the adult-themed OnlyFans site.
(“I typically engage accounts that are recommended or interact with my account,” Gruters told the Daily Mail. “That said, I will review my follows and remove any content that may be considered questionable.”)
Conservative media users aren’t letting that past go.
“Perfect for San Francisco, nightmare for Florida,” one pro-DeSantis account on the social media platform X declared.
When Amnesty Joe Gruters co-sponsored PRO LGBTQIA+ legislation with far left covid tyrant Carlos Smith AND promoted legalized weed with Far Left Radical Shev Jones, he became the UNIPARTY.
Perfect for San Francisco, Nightmare for Florida. pic.twitter.com/aNGrzyf0tY
— DeSantis Appreciation Society (@KickboxerEsq) July 19, 2025
“Gruters just tried to pass amnesty for illegal aliens in Florida,” wrote another user.
Gruters just tried to pass amnesty for illegals aliens in Florida.
— Sunny (@sunnyright) July 25, 2025
The conservative pro-life website LifeSiteNews made its view clear in its headline and summary head about Trump’s endorsement.
“Trump endorses LGBT ‘ally’ Joe Gruters to be next RNC chair,” the headline declared.
The summary headline?
“Donald Trump has endorsed Joe Gruters to lead the Republican National Committee despite the Florida lawmaker’s liberal stances on LGBT ‘discrimination,’ immigration, teachers’ unions, and marijuana.”
According to Florida Politics, Gruters was the first Florida lawmaker to make an official endorsement of Trump in the Republican 2024 primary — snubbing DeSantis’ short-lived, mistake-in-hindsight primary challenge to the 45th president.
That no doubt plays a role in both Trump’s support for Gruters and DeSantis’ opposition, but there appear to be deeper factors at play here.
In a job as crucial as the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, having anything less than sterling, unblemished bona fides is going to be a problem with a voter base with a limited trust in establishment politicians, even if they have an “R” next to their name.
Questionable positions on “trans” issues, illegal immigration, and drugs — not to mention raising eyebrows by following OnlyFans models — are serious red flags for any contender for the job.
Trump has proven over and over again what he can accomplish with sheer force of will, and he’s almost single-handedly responsible for revising the ideological power of the Republican Party after the dormancy of the post-Mitt Romney world.
As the titular head of the party, as well as probably the single most influential human being in the world, much less the American GOP, he could almost certainly install any chairman of the party he chooses.
However, the situation now is the midterms are approaching next year, and the magic “Trump” name is not on the ballot — which means the energy of the party faithful is going to be at a premium for all of the Republican Party.
The question for Trump is, is a clash with conservatives worth it?
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