An American political scientist, Prof. Lara Brown, has predicted a breakup of the Republican Party on account of outgoing President Donald Trump’s actions.
Brown made the prediction at an on-the-record virtual news briefing on the January 20 presidential inauguration on Tuesday.
She said Trump was hurting himself and his party by sticking to his baseless voter fraud claims after the November 3 election had been certified by all authorities, and adjudged the “most secure in American history” by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“His actions are dividing the Republican Party and I think that going forward, we are going to see essentially a Trump faction and a not-Trump faction of the party.
“Those two sides will fight each other until one side decides to form its own party.
“Trump is not helping himself. He is hurting himself by his actions and he is hurting his political party,” she said.
The party is already split over the president’s unsubstantiated claims of having won the election.
Some Republican members of Congress have joined their Democratic counterparts in calling for his resignation after the January 6 breach of Capitol Hill by his supporters.
Political watchers believe the president’s attitude contributed largely to the party’s loss in the runoff senatorial election in Georgia, which cost it control of the Senate.
Brown, who is the Director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, also pointed to a decline in the president’s approval rating in the last few days.
According to her, Trump had an approval rating of between 43 and 46 per cent for almost his entire presidency.
But in the last few days following the Capitol Bill attack, the president’s rating has dropped to between 33 and 36 per cent, she noted.
“One of the things I noted is that presidents who have done these transitions gracefully have also gone on to have a rehabilitation and a kind of political capital in essentially their post-presidency.
“But those who have not done it well have essentially been reviled and dismissed.
“I think what you see in President Trump’s recent approval numbers is that Americans are really displeased by what he is doing,” Brown said.
She stated that Trump’s decision not to attend the inauguration ceremony would have no negative implication for the transition process.
Americans’ desire at the moment, according to her, is to have a new administration that would tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and resuscitate the battled U.S. economy.
“He doesn’t have to attend. As I said, we have had outgoing presidents who didn’t attend the inauguration ceremony.
“President-elect Joe Biden has said he was pleased that Trump will not be in attendance,” Brown said.
