On the morning of January 20, just hours before Joe Biden was set to take the oath of office, Donald Trump reportedly threw a wild tantrum and, along with his son Donald Trump Jr., threatened to quit the Republican Party. Not only that, but the father and son brain trust were vowing to start their own political party, which would have immediate and dire consequences for the GOP whose voters were deeply loyal to Trump.
This latest revelation about the meltdowns occurring in Trump’s final days in office come from a new excerpt from Jonathan Karl’s new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, which shows a tense (and pouty) exchange between Trump and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. According to Karl’s book, McDaniel had called the former president to wish him a cordial farewell, but the situation quickly went south as Trump declared “I’m done” and announced he was quitting the GOP, which would “lose forever without me.” Via ABC News:
Trump’s attitude was that if he had lost, he wanted everybody around him to lose as well, Karl writes. According to a source who witnessed the conversation, Trump was talking as if he viewed the destruction of the Republican Party as a punishment to those party leaders who had betrayed him — including those few who voted to impeach him and the much larger group he believed didn’t fight hard enough to overturn the election in his favor.
“This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me,” Trump told McDaniel, according to the book.
While the tense standoff seemingly favored Trump, Karl writes that the RNC did not take the threat lightly and fired back with threats of its own that got Trump back in line. Namely the RNC threatened to stop paying the legal bills for his numerous election challenges and take control of a very lucrative asset: Trump’s campaign mailing list, which party officials value at over $100 million.
For the record, when reached for comment, both Trump and McDaniel denied the story. McDaniel said she’s never threatened Trump with anything, and you’ll never guess what phrase he used in his response: “fake news.”
(Via ABC News)