Donald Trump and Ronna McDaniel.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty; Nick Hagen for The Washington Post via Getty
With only hours left in his presidency in late January, a defeatedDonald Trumpwas so furious at fellow Republicans for not sufficiently supporting his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results that he wanted to leave the political party to start his own, according to a new book, which he disputes.
InBetrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show(published next week), author and ABC News Chief Washington CorrespondentJonathan Karlwrites about a conversation between the outgoing president and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, which took place on over the phone shortly afterTrump boarded Air Force One for the last time.
On Jan. 20, Trump, 75,skipped the inaugurationofJoe Bidenat the U.S. Capitol, attending instead asmall send-off with family and supportersat Joint Base Andrews inPrince George’s County, Maryland. From there, he took the presidential plane to his private club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Donald Trump Jr.was also on the phone, according to Karl, attributing his details to sources with direct knowledge of the events.
“You cannot do that,” McDaniel said, according to Karl’s book. “If you do, we will lose forever.”
To that, Trump replied, “Exactly. You lose forever without me. I don’t care.”
(Spokespeople for Trump and the GOP did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. Karl writes that Trump denied this version of events in an interview with him.)
From left: Melania Trump and Donald Trump exit Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport on the way to their Mar-a-Lago Club not long before Joe Biden is inaugurated as president on Jan. 20.Noam Galai/Getty
“This is what Republicans deserve for not sticking up for me,” he told the RNC chairwoman, Karl writes.
McDaniel was also forceful in arguing with Trump, according to Karl’s book. “This isn’t what the people who depended on you deserve, the people who believe in you,” she said. “You’ll ruin your legacy. You’ll be done.”
Though Trump was “very adamant,” McDaniel and other top Republican Party members eventually convinced Trump and his closest advisers to back down from the threat to leave the party.
“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,” a party official told Karl.
In particular, Karl writes, the RNC said it would stop paying legal bills for post-election court challenges and would ruin what Karl describes as Trump’s “most valuable political asset”: a list of 40 million emails belonging to Trump supporters.
Donald Trump.Steven Ferdman/WireImage
That list of emails, according to Karl’s book, is worth an estimated $100 million because the Trump campaign could lease it to other Republicans for a price.
Karl writes that Trump, who later said he would remain a member of the Republican Party, denied in an interview that he ever planned to leave or start his own political party — though such a possibility was previously reported inThe Wall Street Journal.
Trump also dismissed accounts of a standoff between him and the RNC as “fake news.”
McDaniel likewise pushed back on Karl’s account,telling ABC News: “This is false, I have never threatened President Trump with anything. 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.”
source: people.com
