Disappointed About Donald Trump, A Former Republican Party Official, Wanting To Start A New Party?

Donald Trump. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - At least 120 former Republican Party officials who are disappointed with the attitude of the Republican Party regarding Donald Trump are said to be discussing the possibility of forming a new political party with the center-right wing.

A source told Reuters those included in the talks were former United States officials, including former elected Republicans, former Republican officials Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, former Republican ambassadors and experts on Republican strategies.

More than 120 of them held Zoom's call last Friday to discuss breakaway groups that would run on a platform of "principled conservatism", including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law. These things are believed to have been violated and destroyed by Donald Trump.

Evan McMullin, who is chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and running as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters he co-hosted Zoom's call with former officials concerned about Trump's grip on the Republican Party.

Among the summons were John Mitnick, general counsel for Trump's Department of Homeland Security; former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent; Elizabeth Neumann, deputy chief of staff at the Homeland Security Department under Trump; and Miles Taylor, another former Trump homeland security official.

The talks highlighted rifts within the party due to Trump's false claims of election fraud and the January 6 storm of Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Most Republican politicians remain fiercely loyal to the former president, but others are looking for new directions for the party.

Call participants said they were deeply disappointed by the fact that more than half of Republicans in Congress, eight senators, and 139 House Representatives, voted to block Joe Biden's electoral winning certification just hours after the siege of Capitol Hill.

"The party needs to recommit to the truth, reason, and ideals of the founder or clearly there needs to be something new. Most Republicans are radicalizing and threatening American democracy", McMullin told Reuters.

McMullin said more than 40 percent of those who followed Zoom's call last week supported the idea of forming a breakaway third national party or forming a faction that would operate inside and outside the Republican Party.

Names being considered for the new include the Integrity Party and the Middle Right Party. If it is decided to form a faction, one name to discuss is the Central Right Republican Party.

However, it is also realized that it is not easy to create a third national party in the US political landscape.

"But there is a much greater hunger for new political parties out there than I have experienced in my entire life", said one participant.

Asked about the discussion held by former Republican officials, Donald Trump's spokesman Jason Miller responded sarcastically while carrying the name of President Joe Biden.

"These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden", he said.