Trump and his 'crackbrained supporters' could destroy the GOP 'without breaking a sweat': columnist

Former President Donald Trump reportedly floated creating his own political party to battle with the GOP in his last week at the White House.

New York Magazine columnist Eric Levitz believes that Trump is too lazy to do all the work that would be required in forming a new political party, but he does believe that the former president and his "most crackbrained supporters" could nonetheless make life miserable for Republicans.

"He could devastate the party of his betrayers without breaking a sweat: If Trump told his voters to sit out the 2024 election to punish Republicans for treating him unfairly, all available evidence suggests he could demobilize enough of the GOP base to render victory impossible," he writes. "And Trump has often displayed greater wrath toward his turncoats than he has toward his known enemies."

Many Republicans believe Trump has already done this by using talk of "rigged" elections to depress voter turnout in the Georgia Senate runoffs earlier this month, thus costing the party control of the Senate.

"All of which is to say: Unless 2024 finds Trump in prison or the grave, the Republican Party will need to find a way to keep itself in his good graces," Levitz concludes.