Trump was once a Republican Party outsider. Now it's his GOP and the MAGA faithful are in the lead

President Donald Trump speaks at a podium with his palms facing out. He stands in front of many individuals in hard hats.
President Donald Trump speaks at the U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works-Irvin plant, Friday, May 30, 2025, in West Mifflin, Pa. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

Amy Kremer was an early Tea Party leader who supported Donald Trump for president in 2016. She ran for Congress from Georgia in 2017 and got less than 1% of the Republican primary vote.

In 2021, she organized the rally near the White House that took place hours before hundreds of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to protest his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

As voters returned Trump to power in 2024, Kremer unseated a conservative stalwart to become a Republican National Committee member. This week in Atlanta, she used that post to help elect a new party chairman, Joe Gruters of Florida. He’s another original Trump backer who has been described by the president as a “MAGA warrior”— a reference to the “Make America Great Again” movement.