Trump Told Associates He Wants to Start ‘Patriot Party’: WSJ

US President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to form a new political party as he prepares to leave office amidst internal struggles within the Republican Party.

The incumbent had told his associates last week he would like to call it the “Patriot Party,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources “familiar with the matter.”

It though remains unclear how serious Trump is about the issue, the journal noted, adding the outgoing president’s wide base of supporters was not heavily involved in the Republican Party before he became its 2016 presidential candidate.

This comes after Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the US Senate, delivered a speech Tuesday blaming Trump for this month’s violent protests at the US Capitol.

“The mob was fed lies,” he said in his most severe and public rebuke of the president. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”

On January 6, Trump supporters launched a deadly assault on the US Capitol, disrupting the certification of the disputed November election results. Five people were killed in the siege.

The president was impeached for the second time last week under the charge of incitement of an insurrection. The Senate, however, will not vote on impeachment until after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration and McConnell has not yet decided whether he will vote to convict Trump.

Speculation has grown about whether Trump will run for the presidency again in 2024, however, Democratic lawmakers have called for him to be banned from running for federal office in the future.

On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams introduced legislation to bar Trump from entering the US Capitol after Wednesday when his presidency ends.

Source: Press TV

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