As expected, Donald Trump allegedly threw a fit before leaving the White House on Jan. 20, according to a new book by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. According to an excerpt from the book—which is entitled Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show—while whining about his loss, Trump threatened to leave the GOP and start his own party. Why? To punish the Republican Party that made him feel abandoned.
Karl said multiple sources overheard the conversation that took place with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. McDaniel had called to wish Trump well as he left the White House, but there were no farewells, just a salty Trump.
Here’s how the conversation reportedly went:
“I’m done,” Trump reportedly told McDaniel. “I’m starting my own party.”
When McDaniel said he can’t do that because, “If you do, we will lose forever," Trump said, “You lose forever without me. I don’t care.” He added that it would be a punishment. “This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me.”
According to the book, McDaniel even attempted to explain that Trump would not only be burning bridges by starting his own party but damaging his own career. “This isn’t what the people who depended on you deserve, the people who believed in you,” McDaniel allegedly said. “You’ll ruin your legacy. You’ll be done.”
"Donald Trump was in no mood for small talk or nostalgic goodbyes," Karl wrote in his book. "He got right to the point. He told her he was leaving the Republican Party and would be creating his own political party. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., was also on the phone. The younger Trump had been relentlessly denigrating the RNC for being insufficiently loyal to Trump. In fact, at the January 6 rally before the Capitol Riot, the younger Trump all but declared that the old Republican Party didn't exist anymore."
Like a child who refuses to grow up, Trump clearly has the mentality that if he loses, everyone must lose. The move isn’t surprising given Trump’s nature and history of complaining about the RNC. According to NBC News, he even wrote about the committee in March, calling them “fools” who “do not have the GOP’s best interests in mind.” He added that “they will never lead us to Greatness [sic].”
But the conversation wasn’t completely in Trump’s hands. According to ABC News, Republican leaders told the former president that if he left, they would stop paying his legal fees and give out Trump's email list for free, "an asset Trump makes millions on renting out to candidates.”
"We told them there were a lot of things they still depended on the RNC for, and that if this were to move forward, all of it would go away," an RNC official told Karl, according to ABC News.
After being put in his place, within less than a week Trump changed his mind and decided he would not start his own party. Of course, like all other things, Trump denied having ever threatened to leave and cried “fake news.”
“ABC Non News and 3rd rate reporter Jonathan Karl have been writing fake news about me from the beginning of my political career,” he said in a statement to ABC News responding to the trending news. “Just look at what has now been revealed about the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It was a made up and totally fabricated scam and the lamestream media knew it. It just never ends!”
But he’s not the only one who took to denying the conversation. On Monday, McDaniel also claimed the conversation Karl shared was not true. "This is false, I have never threatened President Trump with anything," McDaniel told ABC News. "He and I have a great relationship. We have worked tirelessly together to elect Republicans up and down the ballot, and will continue to do so."
But despite Trump’s denials, ABC News’ Monday report is not the first time rumors that Trump wanted to break off from Republicans made headlines.
On his last day in office, The Wall Street Journalreported that Trump was in conversation with aides and advisers about starting a new political party. According to the outlet, one of the names suggested was the “Patriot Party.”
During a CPAC conference in March, Trump claimed that like all other news about his stupidity, this was also “fake news” and addressed questions about him starting his own party.
“Wouldn’t that be brilliant?” he said at the time. “Let’s start a new party so we can divide our vote and never win. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to unite and be stronger than ever before.”
Karl’s book is set to be released on Nov. 16.