In his last day as President, Donald Trump told the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee that he was going to leave the GOP and create his own political party.
The revelation comes in a new book by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show”.
Trump apparently only backed down when Republican leaders threatened to take actions that would have cost Trump millions of dollars.
The standoff began Jan. 20 after Trump boarded Air Force One for his last flight as President of the United States. The RNC Chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, called to bid farewell, and ended up enduring a conversation labeled as “angry” and “unpleasant.”
A description of the conversation between the two is included in the book. Trump said he was done, and starting his own party, to which McDaniel said “You cannot do that, if you do, we will lose forever.”
Karl says that Trump’s attitude was that if he lost, he wanted everyone around him to lose as well. He said the conversation represents Trump’s view that destruction of the Republican Party was a punishment to party leaders who were not seen as “loyal enough” by him and his family.
He told McDaniel that this is what the GOP deserved for not “sticking up” for him.
Following the conversation, McDaniel informed RNC leadership of Trump’s plans, which began a standoff between Trump and his party for the next few days. Karl wrote that McDaniel and the RNC leadership made it clear that if Trump were to leave, the Republican Party would immediately stop paying legal bills incurred during post-election challenges.
And more significantly, the RNC threatened to render worthless his campaign list of email addresses of 40 million supporters, which Trump saw as his most valuable asset because he used it to generate money by renting it to candidates. It’s estimated the list is worth $100 million.
After five days of the standoff, Trump backed down.
Trump and McDaniel have both denied the story.
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