trump smile
© ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump has reportedly dropped an idea to start a third political party, which was briefly floated last week, and is now focused on helping the Republican Party win back the House and the Senate in 2022.

"In last 24 hours, after floating through a few folks that he was considering creating a third-party as a way to keep Senate Rs in line ahead of impeachment, Trump has been talked out of that and is making clear to people he isn't pursuing it," NYT reporter Maggie Haberman wrote. "Trump has started to believe there are fewer votes to convict than there would have been if the vote had been held almost immediately after Jan. 6."


Trump allies also reportedly pointed out to the president that threatening to primary certain Republicans would not make any sense if he created a third political party.

In a statement, top Trump adviser Jason Miller responded to reports that Trump had drafted an "enemies list of Republicans for his Patriot Party to challenge in primaries."


"The President has made clear his goal is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022," Miller said. "There's nothing that's actively being planned regarding an effort outside of that, but it's completely up to Republican Senators if this is something that becomes more serious."

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had discussed with several aides the prospect of creating a third political party, which he said that he would call the "Patriot Party."

"Top pro-Trump Republicans close to the Trump administration told The Daily Wire that they thought it was a 'bad idea' and that it would split enough support away from the Republican Party that it would ensure Democrats stay in the majority for quite some time into the future," The Daily Wire reported. "Online, Democrats and leftists in the media cheered the idea for that exact reason."

On his final day in office, Trump told supporters, "We will be back in some form."

"It's been something very special," Trump said in reference to his administration. "What we've done has been amazing by any standard. We rebuilt the United States Military. We created a new force called Space Force, that in itself would be a major achievement for a regular administration. We were not a regular administration."

"We've left it all on the field," Trump said, adding that his family won't be sitting around in the future wondering if things would have gone differently if they had worked harder because they worked as hard as they could.

"You are amazing people," Trump said. "This is a great, great country. It is my greatest honor and privilege to have been your president. I will always fight for you. I will be watching. I will be listening. And I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better. I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they'll have great success. They have the foundation to do something really spectacular, and again, we put it in a position like it's never been before despite the worst plague to hit since ... 1917, over 100 years ago."