Last week, it was reported that President Trump was interested in starting a new political party called the “Patriot Party.” This controversial idea had many pros and cons, but while it may send a symbolic message to the GOP, ultimately it is far more likely that such a move would only benefit Democrats, in both the short and long terms.
Luckily, President Trump has now decided against the idea of starting a third party, according to Maggie Haberman of the New York Times.
Trump has started to believe there are fewer votes to convict than there would have been if the vote had been held almost immediately after Jan. 6, the people familiar with his thinking said.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 24, 2021
Instead, Trump will focus his energy on bolstering primary challenges to Never-Trump Republicans. On Sunday, PJM’s Rick Moran reported that Trump is drafting an “enemies list” of Republicans to challenge during the 2022 primaries.
Trump is apparently making a list of Republican lawmakers who, he feels, didn’t back him strenuously enough or actually voted against him during the impeachment fight in the House. He will almost certainly add to that list when the Senate trial is concluded, as there could be as many as 10 Republicans voting to convict. His plan is to make their lives miserable by threatening to oppose their reelections.
Such an effort does come with some risk, as Moran noted. Back when Obama was in the White House, there were several Tea Party-backed candidates who defeated electable Republican incumbents, only to lose in the general election. Sometimes you have to fight the right battles in order to win the war.
Ultimately, the goal should be to win back the House and Senate. If we can purge some ineffectual Democrat-appeasing Republicans in the process, that is great, but saving our country is more important than vengeance for Trump.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter, Facebook, Parler, Gab, MeWe, Heroes, Rumble, and CloutHub.