Dozens of Republican officials quit party, calling it 'Trump cult'

A large number of Republican officials in former US President George W. Bush’s administration have quit the party, saying it has become a “Trump cult.”

The officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, are demoralized by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Donald Trump after his claims of election fraud that sparked a deadly protest march on the US Capitol last month, Reuters reported on Monday.

The officials are angry that Republican Party leaders have not distanced themselves from Trump who claimed that the November presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, who was sworn in as the new US president on January 20.  Trump said that election fraud had tainted the election results.

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

Trump was impeached for the second time last month by the House under the charge of incitement of an insurrection. The Senate is likely to vote on impeachment next week.

Most Republican lawmakers have backed Trump’s position on election fraud.

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About a dozen former Bush officials told Reuters the angry Republican officials say they no longer recognize the party they served.

They added that some officials have ended their Republican membership, others are letting it lapse while a few are newly registered as independents.

“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I’d call it the cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.

Some 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to quit the Republican Party or are cutting ties with it, said Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House’s communications office for six years. “The number is growing every day.”

Rosario Marin, a former Treasurer of the US under Bush, told Reuters, “If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back.”

“Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders,” he added.

The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives introduced an article of impeachment last month to the Senate that charges Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors for whipping up an insurrection and disrupting the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump is the only US president who has been impeached twice by the House and will be the first to face trial after leaving the White House.

Biden worried Trump’s trial could torpedo his agenda

US President Joe Biden is worried that former President Donald Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial poses some risks to his presidency as it could torpedo his early agenda.

Conviction in the Senate could result in a vote to bar him from running for office again, but the conviction is unlikely as only a few Republican senators may vote for impeachment, despite lingering anger among some Republicans over his recent actions.

A two-thirds majority vote would be required for his conviction which would require at least 17 Republican votes if every Democrat votes to convict Trump.

Last week five Republicans voted against tabling a motion calling the trial unconstitutional made it certain the Senate will not win the two-thirds vote necessary for conviction.

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