What would a new ‘Patriot Party’ run by Trump mean for US politics?

Trump has repeatedly insisted that he will be ‘back in some form’ and is rumoured to be considering starting his own political party. Sean O'Grady looks back at how previous threats to America’s two-horse race have fared

Trump waves as he boards Marine One at the White House for the last time - but will he still be a major influence on US politics? (AFP via Getty Images)

According to the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump has discussed starting his own political party. At a recent rally, Trump declared that, even as he leaves office, his “movement” is “only just beginning”. His politically ambitious son, Don Junior, had previously claimed that the Republican Party was now “Donald Trump’s party”, as if a piece of real estate. If that were ever true – and there is no mistaking the personal loyalty of many in the “base” – the events of 6 January and afterwards have created an atmosphere of a mutual hostility between Trump and much of the Republican Party. It seems his mind is now turning to a vehicle for his own ambitions, a permanent and reliable platform for interventions over the course of the Biden administration, and one that he himself really does own and control. It even has a working title – the Patriot Party.  

Will it work? Recent Trump fundraising, amounting to some $250m (£180m) since election day, suggests money would not be a problem, even if Trump didn’t use any of his own fortune. It is possible that he could attract defectors from the Republicans at all levels – state legislators and officials, federal representatives senators, advisers, ex staffers and so on. He certainly does have a constituency, and he might well marry his new movement to a social media presence of his own, and ally to a sympathetic broadcast news outfit such as OANN (One America News Network).