If Donald Trump sets up new party, almost half of his supporters will leave GOP to join him: Poll
In a revelation that would leave the captains of the Republican Party terrified, a new poll has shown that nearly half of the supporters of former President Donald Trump would abandon the GOP if he went on to form his own party. Only 27 percent said that would stick to the red party while the rest was undecided.
An exclusive Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll came up with the findings earlier this week saying “Trump’s support largely unshaken after his second impeachment trial in the Senate” since 46 percent of those surveyed were in favor of ditching the GOP to join Trump’s new party if there is one. One of those favoring the shift of base even said that he doesn’t feel the Republicans fight for them enough.
“We feel like Republicans don't fight enough for us, and we all see Donald Trump fighting for us as hard as he can, every single day,” Brandon Keidl, a 27-year-old Republican and small-business owner from Milwaukee, said in an interview after being polled by the survey. “But then you have establishment Republicans who just agree with establishment Democrats and everything, and they don’t ever push back,” he added.
RELATED ARTICLES
Donald Trump 'excited for 2022' after acquittal, ready to move on and rebuild GOP: Lindsey Graham
Has Trump's standing among Republican voters improved? GOP supporters want him in major party role: Survey
Trump’s dying days in office witnessed a massive controversy snowballing after his supporters stormed the Capitol to protest the victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The former president was subsequently impeached (for the second time) by the Democrat-controlled House on charges of inciting the insurrection that saw five people dead. He was banned by a number of major social media platforms, including Twitter.
Trump skipped the inauguration of Biden’s presidential inauguration last month and pledged that he would be back in some form. The GOP, meanwhile, has remained deeply split over supporting the businessman-politician as many still consider him to be the party’s most prominent face and those criticizing him have faced a backlash from within. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate and he is set to make his first major post-presidency speech in Orlando, Florida, next Sunday, February 28.
Speculation is also rife that Trump could set up a new party called the ‘Patriot Party’ which if a reality, could seriously jeopardize the support base of the GOP, thanks to the former president’s supporters' growing dissatisfaction with the party. The results seen in the poll mentioned here will add to the GOP’s worry. On January 19, a day before Biden took the oath, the Wall Street Journal reported: “Trump discussed the matter with several aides and other people close to him last week. The President said he would want to call the new party the 'Patriot Party,' the people said.” Trump’s allies later denied such a possibility but yet his supporters are hopeful about him forming a separate party.
64% of GOP voters would join a new party led by Trump: Poll
Another poll which was published earlier this month also indicated something similar. The Hill-HarrisX poll said 64 percent of registered GOP voters said in the survey (carried out on January 28-29) that they would join a new political party led by Trump and 32 percent said they were very likely to join it as well. As against it, only 36 percent said they were either very or somewhat unlikely to do the same.
Trump, however, is expected to declare control of the GOP during his speech this weekend, Axios reported this week. It said citing top allies of the former President: “In his first post-presidential appearance, Donald Trump plans to send the message next weekend that he is Republicans' "presumptive 2024 nominee" with a vise grip on the party's base.”
Another long-time friend of Trump said the latter’s speech will be a “show of force” and added that his message will be: "I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I'm still in charge.” With the former President increasingly looking formidable to take over the reins of the Republican Party, the possibilities of him setting up a separate party might fade first but these poll results reiterate the fact that despite the defeat in the election and the impeachments, he continues to be a powerful force.