Patriot-ism.
It was a fine idea while it lasted. No, actually, it was a terrible idea. Trump can do at least as much damage to establishment Republicans backing primary challengers as he could organizing a third party. Let’s say he got “the Patriot Party” off the ground, hired people to make sure it was on the ballot in all 50 states, and then fielded a slew of candidates in House and Senate races. Let’s further say that 25 percent of Republican Party voters *initially* decided to support the Patriot Party candidate over the Republican alternative. As Election Day got closer, negative partisanship would begin to gnaw at those voters and they’d start thinking strategically: “If I vote for Trump’s candidate, the right-wing vote will split and the Democrat will win.” Eventually a meaningful number of Trump supporters would decide to vote GOP anyway in the interest of stopping the left. But not all would. I’m sure the Patriot Party would succeed in tanking Republicans’ chances in a slew of races. What kind of headlines would that deliver for Trump the next day, though? “DEMS WIN HISTORIC SWEEP, ENABLED BY TRUMP SPOILERS.” Or “TRUMP PARTY TAKES JUST 10% OF VOTE.” Is that the kind of return Trump wants for his time and money? Ten percent of the vote and no actual victories? In fact, according to both the Washington Post and the Daily Beast, it’s unclear if Trump was serious about a third party when he brought it up to aides. It sounds like his interest was chiefly as a threat, to spook the Republican jurors in his Senate trial: Multiple people in Trump’s orbit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, say Trump has told people that the third-party threat gives him leverage to prevent Republican senators from voting to convict him during the Senate impeachment trial. Trump advisers also say they plan to recruit opposing primary candidates and commission polling next week in districts of targeted lawmakers. Trump has more than $70 million in campaign cash banked to fund his political efforts, these people say. The prospect of a divisive battle threatens to widen a split in the Republican Party and has alarmed leaders in Washington, who have been pleading publicly to avoid any new rounds of internecine retribution. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel are among the leaders who have worked to protect politicians like Cheney, who supported Trump’s second impeachment and now faces an internal effort to remove her from her role as the third-highest-ranking member of the House Republican leadership. If the third-party talk was all about gaining leverage over his jurors, why is he giving up on it before the trial’s even been gaveled in? Because, silly: He figured out that most Republicans in the Senate are cowards who’d never put their own asses on the line in the name of doing the right thing.
