Deep divisions in the Republican Party over what one former GOP official calls “the cult of Trump” is costing the party dozens of prominent ex-members of the George W. Bush administration, Reuters reports.
“These officials … said they had hoped that a Trump defeat would lead party leaders to move on from the former president and denounce his baseless claims that the November presidential election was stolen.”
But they were disappointed: most GOP lawmakers are sticking with Trump, the news agency said in an exclusive report on Monday.
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I’d call it the cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was a Treasury undersecretary in the Bush administration.
Sixty or more former officials are likely to leave the party in coming days.
Some of the departing Republicans “have ended their membership, others are letting it lapse while a few are newly registered as independents,” Reuters says, citing “a dozen” former Bush officials.
The GOP is currently divided between disaffected moderates and “independents disgusted by the hold Trump still has over elected officials” on one side, Reuters says, “and Trump’s fervently loyal base” on the other.
Without the strong support of both groups, the party will likely face an uphill battle in future national elections.
Not all Trump opponents are taking the drastic step of leaving the party.
“Two former Bush officials who spoke to Reuters said they believe it is important to stay in the party to rid it of Trump’s influence,” the news agency says.
One such is Suzy DeFrancis, who served in multiple Republican administrations going back to Richard Nixon, who says she voted for Biden in November.
“I totally understand why people are frustrated and want to leave the party. I’ve had that feeling for four years,” DeFrancis told Reuters.
But she added that she opposes a GOP breakup because it would benefit only the Democrats.