Almost half of Republicans would join a new Trump party: Poll

Nearly half of Republicans say they would drop the GOP and join a new party led by former President Donald Trump, a new poll shows.

According to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll of Trump voters released Sunday, 46 percent said they would abandon their party whereas only 27 percent said they would not. The rest remain undecided.

Meanwhile, half of the Trump voters surveyed said that the GOP should be “more loyal to Trump,” while only 19 percent said the opposite, noting they believe the Republican Party should be less loyal to Trump.

"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," a Republican and small-business owner from Milwaukee said. "But then you have establishment Republicans who just agree with establishment Democrats and everything, and they don't ever push back."

The poll surveyed 1,000 Trump voters, identified from 2020 polls, between Feb. 15 and Feb. 19. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The figures put into sharp focus the dilemma that Republican leaders are confronting as they try to adjust to a post-Trump era.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had discussed the launching of the “Patriot Party” with his inner circle during the last days of his presidency. The name would be a nod to the extreme nationalism that Trump espoused throughout his tumultuous tenure as president.

The former president has severely criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Trump was “morally” responsible for the Jan. 6 Capitol assault.

The US House impeached Trump over his role for the invasion on the Capitol that left five people dead, including a member of law enforcement.

He was blamed for inciting an insurrection while the lawmakers were certifying the victory of Joe Biden in the disputed 2020 presidential election.

ME