According to the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump has discussed starting his own political party. At a recent rally, Trump declared that, even as he leaves office, his “movement” is “only just beginning”. His politically ambitious son, Don Junior, had previously claimed that the Republican Party was now “Donald Trump’s party”, as if a piece of real estate. If that were ever true – and there is no mistaking the personal loyalty of many in the “base” – the events of 6 January and afterwards have created an atmosphere of a mutual hostility between Trump and much of the Republican Party. It seems his mind is now turning to a vehicle for his own ambitions, a permanent and reliable platform for interventions over the course of the Biden administration, and one that he himself really does own and control. It even has a working title – the Patriot Party.
Will it work? Recent Trump fundraising, amounting to some $250m (£180m) since election day, suggests money would not be a problem, even if Trump didn’t use any of his own fortune. It is possible that he could attract defectors from the Republicans at all levels – state legislators and officials, federal representatives senators, advisers, ex staffers and so on. He certainly does have a constituency, and he might well marry his new movement to a social media presence of his own, and ally to a sympathetic broadcast news outfit such as OANN (One America News Network).
