Trump Said To Be Considering The Formation Of A Third Party
[guest post by Dana]
This is really not a surprise. Keep the grift going for as long as you can:
President Trump has talked in recent days with associates about forming a new political party, according to people familiar with the matter, an effort to exert continued influence after he leaves the White House.
Mr. Trump discussed the matter with several aides and other people close to him last week, the people said. The president said he would want to call the new party the “Patriot Party,” the people said.
…
It’s unclear how serious Mr. Trump is about starting a new party, which would require a significant investment of time and resources. The president has a large base of supporters, some of whom were not deeply involved in Republican politics prior to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
He certainly has a substantial base in place. And after receiving 74 million votes, we can assume that he would be able to peel off a significant number of MAGA loyalists (as opposed to the Republicans who begrudgingly voted for Trump). Calling it the “Patriot Party” is very on-brand for Trumpers too. But would it actually gain any momentum given the incredible push back that would come from the Republican Party? The longtime major party is not about to sit idly by as a third party pulls away members. But are Trump’s supporters still loyal to him – even after the events of Jan. 6? Well, at least right now, it appears so:
The new ABC News/Washington Post poll out Friday morning shows broad public support for holding Trump accountable for last week’s siege at the Capitol. But 60% of Republicans say they still want their party to follow Trump’s direction, with only one in three favoring a new direction.
Among those who approve of Trump’s job performance, a startling one in five — 19% — support those who stormed the Capitol. Two-thirds of Republicans believe the president has behaved responsibly since the election.
It points to a Trump-backing base that is feeding off different news sources and operating under different norms entirely than even their fellow Republicans…
While no one yet knows how the Republican Party will shake out in the wake of Trump’s departure from the White House, I think it’s safe to say that given the embarrassingly small number of Republican lawmakers willing to hold him accountable and vote for impeachment, he will continue to hold sway for some time.
I realize this is anecdotal but nonetheless, I’m sure this is happening in other places as well. Since the election, I know of three lifelong Republicans from separate families, who live just several doors apart from one another in my neighborhood and have left the Republican Party. Each one of them says essentially the same thing: they could not bring themselves to vote for Trump, and they had been hoping for a long time that the GOP would wake up and turn away from him. Of course, that never happened. So when Trump attempted to overturn a legitimate election, the decision was made for them. They would rather be unaffiliated with any party than spend another day as members of the GOP.
Secondly, this is another telling example of the current disarray of the Republican Party: Dan McLaughlin points to his email inbox and notes that Trump’s name has all but disappeared from Republican fundraising emails:
If you have been on Republican fundraising email lists the past several years — even if, like me, you have never given a penny to Donald Trump’s campaigns — you are familiar not only with the regular deluge of such emails, but also with the ubiquity of Trump and the Trump family in the sender line, subject line, text, and merchandise offered in such emails. Trump is everywhere. Until now: Suddenly, he’s gone. After noticing this pattern, I went through my inbox (even the spam folder) and counted up the fundraising emails from official GOP sources since January 7, the day after the Capitol riot. What isn’t said speaks volumes. I categorized these by the sender or domain…
In just under two weeks, 201 emails, of which at most eight mentioned Trump, and a few of those only obliquely. Even emails pounding away at social-media bans talk about banning “conservatives,” not Trump himself. Jake Tapper of CNN is mentioned in more of these emails than Trump is. I also saw zero examples of Trump merchandise referenced in any of these emails.
Few things are more directly aimed at the tribal id of political partisans than fundraising pitches via direct mail and email. If rank-and-file Republican donors are more likely to respond favorably than unfavorably to mentions of the president, you’d expect to see that. If my inbox is at all representative, Trump’s absence speaks volumes about what the fundraising professionals are seeing in the mood of the party.
So, while a newly sworn-in President Joe Biden is calling for unity today, the Republican Party is trying to sell their own twisted brand of it: Look the other way and do not hold a former President of the United States accountable for fomenting the horrendous events that took place on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, nor hold him accountable for a two-month effort to overturn election results because the nation needs to, you know, unify and heal. Look the other way. For the sake of the party.
[Ed. I can’t remember who it was but several weeks ago, well before this report came out, a commenter said that they thought Trump would start his own party and peel away the MAGA crowd as opposed to the anti-MAGA Republicans pulling away from the Republican Party to start a third party. It looks like you were onto something.]
–Dana
Good morning.
Dana (fd537d) — 1/20/2021 @ 8:54 amReposted from another thread
If Trump starts a new party it will be for 3 reasons.
1. To get Donald Trump attention.
2. To make money selling merch to marks.
3. To get people named Trump elected.
That’s it. It won’t be a movement. It won’t be the start a new populist party. It will be for attention and an opportunity to rip people off.
Time123 (36651d) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:01 amIf this happens I’ll be with the Republican party.
Charles Davis (15121e) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:09 amDonald who?
nk (1d9030) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:10 amRight, nk?? But the unfortunate fact remains, Trump is a popular figure who will still have great influence over the GOP (as long as the cash continues to roll in any way)…
Dana (fd537d) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:13 amI hope he does start a new party, but that would be too easy so it probably won’t happen.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:29 amBut if he does start the
Patriot Party, he’ll probably take a fraction of the 74.2 million of those who voted for him, but at least it would be the bad fraction.Yoou can’t start a new party unless you have a leader who is willing to:
1) Watch cable news six hours a day
John B Boddie (d795fd) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:34 am2) Play golf at least three times a week
3) Surround himself with legal experts
Setting up a successful new political party is extremely difficult. There will be 50+ ballot access laws to contend with, deliberately made difficult by the entrenched political system. Time123 is correct.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:35 amhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/arizona-republicans-trump.html
* Ali Alexander got the permit for the rally at the Capitol. He denies being responsible for the “Occupy the Capitol” event.
Of course, “progressives” did that one time too, but theydidn;t stop proceedings:
https://populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/hundreds-activists-occupy-capitol-stop-trumpcare
Sammy Finkelman (dcc9ca) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:40 amTrump’s only been gone 40 minutes and I’m already bored.
Time123 (6e0727) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:42 amI interrupt this discussion of the political future of a failed real estate developer and former reality t.v. star to note that I really liked the inauguration of our new president. Lopez and the poet did great, and Biden’s speech was also good.
Victor (4959fb) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:43 amI suppose he could have Bannon do all of the actual work and they should share in the grift.
Time123 (6e0727) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:44 am#10
I want to be bored by politics. At least for the next year or so.
Appalled (1a17de) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:45 amI suppose he could have Bannon do all of the actual work and they should share in the grift.
I loved how typical it was for Trump to pardon Bannon and leave his co-defendants holding the bag.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:49 amTrump turns 75 at the end of this spring. I know he figured this new party will just sort of organically pop up and organize itself around his massive ego, but party building traditionally takes years and years and that’s one luxury that I don’t think The Donald has at his disposal. And it’s really hard envisioning Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka, or Tiffany carrying the torch. Maybe Baron Trump will be the Chosen One.
JVW (ee64e4) — 1/20/2021 @ 9:58 am“Trump’s only been gone 40 minutes and I’m already bored.”
But bored in a truly wonderful way.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 1/20/2021 @ 10:04 amJVW, how does the party building challenge change when you replace all the normal stuff with a system to rip of the marks?
He doesn’t need to get on any ballots to ask for donations and sell stuff.
He doesn’t need much organization to hold a rally in Jacksonville or Savanah where he belittles his opponents and whines about how unfairly he was treated.
Time123 (36651d) — 1/20/2021 @ 10:05 amThe question is, how many GOP officeholders will jump ship and join him? Probably not too many would be eager to cut the GOP lifeline….especially in light of Trump’s history of loyalty and helping the team. It would also be interesting to see how Hannity, Ingraham, et al would respond to a “Trump Party”….would FNC get split? It would be equally fascinating to see what Rupert Murdoch’s unvarnished opinion of the Trump experiment is. Yes, he made money…but he’s always going to make money….but rather, ideologically, does Murdoch regret backing Trump…or does he believe that Trump has tapped some novel third way? My opinion is that Trump needed the GOP to be his straight man and that his routine untethered to some sort of normalcy will quickly spin out and become irrelevant….he’ll have his National Enquirer crowd and the Proud Boys…and little else. Most people don’t want the nutritional equivalent of Twinkees for every political meal….
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 1/20/2021 @ 10:35 amDonald Trump imagines himself to be more popular than he really is. Yes, he improbably won in 2016, but that was because more people voted against Hillary Clinton than voted for him. And yes he received 74 million votes in 2020, but that was because most Republicans were voting against Biden, rather than for him, and they were outnumbered by people voting against him by 7 million. He’s a loser.
Any attempt to form a third party will end in miserable failure. Sure, he’s got over $200 million in his defense PAC, but he’ll blow through that in just a few months. He probably will get some donations from his fevered supporters, but forming a third party and getting registered in all 50 states is very time consuming, problematic and expensive.
Trump doesn’t have that kind of money or influence. He’s deeply in debt, and his organization is bleeding money. At most, he can pretend to be a force in the Republican party, maybe finance primaries in 2022 or 2024 against Republicans who were disloyal to him, if he isn’t bankrupt by then. Or in jail.
The Senate may convict him, rendering him unable to run for or hold any future office. That would put an end to his third party dreams. Several states can now proceed with investigations and prosecutions. He’s out of office. A new President has been sworn in. All this talk of Trump will fade into the background, because he’s no longer relevant. He’s a loser.
I watched Biden’s inauguration, thought it was well produced. Not much of a crowd, given the circumstances and security, lots of flags, but still better than any Trump rally. And, by the way, who attended or watched his send off?
I’m no fan of Lady Gaga or Jenifer Lopez, but those girls can really sing. Garth Brooks never disappoints.
I’d never heard of Amanda Gorman before, but she was introduced as the first National Poet Laureate. That must be a new title, because it didn’t exist before. The first poet laureate of the US was Robert Penn Warren. Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in the 20th century was also a poet laureate, and he wrote and delivered a poem for the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.
Gorman cannot compare to either of them. No can she compare to E. E. Cummings, who was the second most widely read poet behind Frost.
It didn’t find her poem inspiring, because it was not poetry. It lacked meter, rhythm and rhyme.
I’ve studied poetry going back centuries, and what I can tell you is that what passes for poetry today is not poetry. It’s just rap, and there is a difference.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 1/20/2021 @ 11:12 amPlease Mr President, we fear that briar patch! If you take all your followers, what will the GOP ever do?!?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/20/2021 @ 11:36 amA few years after Perot let go the Reform Party, the party had both Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani as leaders. Then it lost cohesion.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/20/2021 @ 11:39 am@ #18.
Yes, I can see Trump as a malevolent Jerry Lewis, and the GOP as his Dean Martin.
Purple Martin (bce78a) — 1/20/2021 @ 11:42 amDCSCA
Sammy Finkelman (dcc9ca) — 1/20/2021 @ 12:01 pm@ #19. Amanda Gorman was the first National Youth Poet Laureate (at 22, she is no longer). Your view is shared by many, but she’s pretty well-regarded in the serious poetry world (as are some poets who started as rap artists). But that’s the thing about arts criticism…it can’t be wrong.
Rap-derived rhyme schemes notwithstanding, as a poem written for the occasion of this Presidential Inaugural—the one following the Trump Interregnum—I thought it spectacular. I’m surprised they gave her that much time, and glad they did. From a political and societal point of view, people needed to hear it.
As with much different art, might want to let it steep in your subconscious for a while, and come back to it later.
Purple Martin (bce78a) — 1/20/2021 @ 12:09 pmDCSCA @28 Yes, they kept on omitting the precedent of Nixon, even though it did apply because the outgoing president was alive.
I heard someone say this was the first time the “football” wasn’t handed over. But Nixon probably carried the nuclear “football” (actual a satchel with codes to identify the user as president) on the jet plane he took from Washington.
Jimmy Carter wasn’t there. (he was virtually) It was considered too dangerous for him to travel. Neither were the three oldest Justices on the Supreme Court. I figure that was Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer, but who was the third? Alito?
Bernie Sanders was asked, in general terms, I think on NBC, about comments on Twitter on what he wearing. He sad that in Vermont they protect themselves from the cold and (in so doing) don’t care so much about fashion. He got asked some more substantive questions too.
Mitch McConnell noted at the Senate non-reception that both the son and the daughter of the Senate who were inaugurated today had skipped the House. That’s actually quite common. The interesting thing is that many were previous members of the House of Representatives.
The presidents were in Arlington.
Sammy Finkelman (dcc9ca) — 1/20/2021 @ 12:18 pmPurple Martin (bce78a) — 1/20/2021 @ 12:09 pm
The trouble with the “serious poetry world” is that it’s filled with profoundly unserious people. And, even worse, profoundly unserious poets.
Umm…sure, it can. If you think that Twilight is of comparable literary quality with Pride and Prejudice, you are wrong. If you watch Robot Monster with rapt attention but walk out on Tokyo Story, you are wrong. If you see stylistic subtleties in the sugar-fueled crayon scribblings of a four-year-old but regard a Caravaggio masterpiece as thuddingly obvious and trite, you are wrong. That’s really all there is to it.
Mmm…not really necessary. Not enough proper meter, too much assonance. More performance than needed. Two steps away from full free-verse (you should NEVER go full free-verse). And I say this as someone who once fancied myself a poet because I wrote a few poems and won a couple small awards — including one with a free-verse composition that I basically vomited onto the page in a frenzied stream-of-consciousness binge. But it wasn’t a real poem. And I wasn’t a real poet.
As for Ms. Gorman, she seems like a nice enough young woman. But when it comes to her art, I’m not very impressed. #NotMyPoetLaureate
Speaking of which, from the Wikipedia article:
Why should your “activities” matter to an evaluation of your poetic talents?
Ah, I see. So the title is not given to recognize the achievements of an artist. It’s given to promote the efforts of a social-justice activist.
When did Twitter go away? And while I’m on the subject, why are we so terribly interested what young people have to say about politics and culture? They may call it conversation, but it’s just regurgitation. Let’s not give more approbation to this unskilled generation. They should be met with perturbation, abnegation, condemnation — dare I say humiliation? — lest they start a conflagration that destroys this once-great nation.
[/mic drop]
Demosthenes (1e7dbc) — 1/20/2021 @ 1:19 pmThey would rather be unaffiliated with any party than spend another day as members of the GOP.
This is unfortunate as the party’s recovery depends on people like them. It is one thing to dislike the direction the party is currently headed. It is quite another to abandon responsibility for its future direction in some misguided need for self-approval.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/20/2021 @ 1:23 pmNah. Trump 101- keep’em guessing… as the TeeVee Showman will tell you: ‘stay-tuned.’
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/20/2021 @ 3:17 pmI got a text message purporting to be from … Corey Lewandowski … today, offering me the opportunity to “show my gratitude” to President Trump by sending him money.
I typed out a hostile response, but in deference to President Biden’s call for civility, didn’t send it.
I kind of wish I’d checked the fine print to see where the money was really going. Is Lewandowski using the boss’s name to line his own pockets? Wouldn’t surprise me.
Dave (1bb933) — 1/20/2021 @ 5:12 pmAh:
Dana (fd537d) — 1/21/2021 @ 4:01 pm