Report: Donald Trump discussed forming new 'Patriot Party'

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (SBG) — Donald Trump may form a new political party following his departure from the White House.

Trump discussed forming a "Patriot Party" last week with several aides and other people close to him, according to people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

A "Patriot Party National Committee" website says it wants to “restore constitutional conservative leadership” and is “a movement for conservatives that have been left in the cold by the establishment GOP.” The platform promotes “responsible gun ownership,” “family values,” and “fiscal accountability.” Trump's connection to the group is unclear.

Links from the website to Patriot Party Twitter accounts and state party accounts show several of them have been suspended. The website also lists a disabled Parler account. The social media company was removed from its servers over a week ago.

Another Patriot Party Twitter account not listed on the website was created in December and has close to 95,000 followers.

Website administrators did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump's support has waned among Republicans in Congress in recent days. According to the New York times last week, top Republican congressional leader Mitch McConnell told associates he is glad Democrats are trying to impeach Trump and hopes that doing so will “purge” him from the Republican party. Yesterday, McConnell accused Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol building, and it's unclear whether he'll vote to convict Trump following the House impeachment. "The mob was fed lies," McConnell said. "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people."

Trump has hinted he may run again in 2024 — although Congress could prevent him from doing so. If two-thirds of the Senate votes to convict Trump, they would have to take an additional simple majority vote to prevent him from holding future office.

Third parties usually don’t draw much support in national elections, but they sometimes impact competition between Democrats and Republicans. There's the famous example of Ross Perot, who took 19% of the vote in the 1992 race between Republican George H. W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton. Some say Perot's campaign cost Bush a second term.

In 2020, Libertarian Party nominee Jo Jorgensen, who received 1.7 million votes, could have made up the margin of victory between Biden and Trump in several key swing states, according to the Daily Caller.