GOP says it will stay neutral if Trump decides to run for president again in 2024, shoots down any notion of new party

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said this week that the GOP will remain "neutral" in 2024 if former President Donald Trump decides to run for the White House once more.

McDaniel's news comes on the heels of an early January report that the former president is allegedly considering forming his own political party — the "Patriot Party."

What are the details?

According to a Wednesday report from the Associated Press, McDaniel said that the GOP "declined to encourage" Trump to run for president in 2024 and would remain "neutral" in its next presidential primary.

McDaniel told the news organization that the national party infrastructure would not support Trump's 2024 potential White House ambitions over those of other potential candidates "in accordance with party rules," according to the outlet.

"The party has to stay neutral," she said. "I'm not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024. That's going to be up to those candidates going forward. What I really do want to see him do, though, is help us win back majorities in 2022."

The AP reported: "[McDaniel] has been a devoted Trump loyalist, but as the RNC leader, she is also tasked with helping her party recover from its painful 2020 election season in which Republicans lost the Senate and the White House and failed to win back the House. Trump's fervent base continues to demand loyalty to the former president, even as some party officials acknowledge that Trump's norm-shattering behavior alienated elements of the coalition the GOP needs to win future elections."

Earlier in January, the Wall Street Journal revealed that sources close to Trump have said that the former president is mulling the creation of a new political party.

"Trump discussed the matter with several aides and other people close to him last week," the outlet reported. "The [former] president said he would want to call the new party the 'Patriot Party,' the people said."

Other reports noted that "top pro-Trump Republicans" close to the administration said it was a "bad idea" and would effectively split the Republican Party so that it would be nearly impossible for Republicans or otherwise to defeat the Democratic Party in any elections.

McDaniel said that if the former president created a new political party, the move would certainly divide Republicans and "guarantee Democrat wins up and down the ticket."

"It would be basically a rubber stamp on Democrats getting elected," she reasoned. "And I think that's the last thing that any Republican wants. It's clear that he understands that."

In a farewell statement, the former president promised his supporters that he would "be back in some form."

"As I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning," he said. "There's never been anything like it. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle but instead only grow stronger by the day. As long as the American people hold in their hearts deep and devoted love of country, then there is nothing this nation cannot achieve." In his final speech as president, Trump at Joint Base Andrews said, "We will be back in some form."