Ex-RNC chairman slams group for spending $100K on copies of Trump Jr. book: That’s ‘screwed up’

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele on Friday blasted the organization for buying nearly $100,000 worth of copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s new book.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Steele pointed to the purchases of “Triggered” as an example of what he called “internal corruption” at the national party organization.

“Let me just tell you how screwed up this is,” he said. “Before I became national chairman, I’d written a book on how the Republican Party can regroup after the 2008 shellacking, after the 2006 bang-up at the polls and move forward. And people looked at me and said, ‘How dare you write a book and try to profit off the RNC?'”{mosads}

“And these SOBs are just giving away $100,000 to the president’s son? Are you kidding me?” he continued. “This is the kind of internal corruption that people complained about inside the RNC for a long time. … There’s no surprise here.”

Steele, who previously served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland, led the RNC as chairman from 2009 to 2011. He currently works as a political analyst on MSNBC.

His remarks came after The New York Times reported this week that Federal Election Commission filings showed that the RNC in late October paid $94,800 to Books-A-Million for “donor mementos.”

On the same day as the purchase, Trump Jr. signed an RNC fundraising email that said anyone who donated $50 or more to the party would get a signed copy of the book.

An RNC official told BuzzFeed News this month that there wasn’t “a large bulk purchase” but that the party had been buying up copies to keep up with demand.

“Using books as a means to fundraise is standard practice from political parties on both sides of the aisle,” the official said. “‘Triggered’ has been very popular among our supporters, helping us raise funds to support the reelection effort.”

An RNC official told The Hill this week that the party brought in $500,000 by fundraising off of the book.