A major Republican donor is turning on President Trump for stoking mob violence that breached the nation’s capital.
“No tax cut is worth being branded a domestic terrorist,” Dan Eberhart, who is the CEO of an oil services company, Canary, told the Washington Examiner. “Trump’s made himself toxic by turning his rhetoric into violence, which is a line no politician should ever cross. Words matter.”
“He’s f—— crazy,” Eberhart added. “You put up with crazy because you want conservative policies that are pro-growth and pro-business, but he has taken this three steps too far. Look, dude, you lost.”
Eberhart, who has donated heavily to Republican lawmakers in addition to Trump in recent years, said the president’s actions “delegitimized his administration’s achievements” and made it “impossible to support him.”
Eberhart also blamed Trump for Republican losses in the Georgia runoff races, which handed control of the Senate to Democrats.
He said Trump’s campaign should have spent the money it was raising on election-related challenges on supporting Republican candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
“Trump is blowing up the Republican Party for no reason,” Eberhart said. “We need to rebuild the Republican Party in someone else’s image.”
Eberhart, however, stopped short of calling for Trump’s removal before the inauguration on Jan. 20, which he considers pointless given the short duration until President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
But Eberhart is the latest of many energy and business leaders who have abandoned Trump for the president’s role in the riots after four years of supporting his administration’s weakening of environmental regulations and pro-fossil fuel agenda.
Mike Sommers, the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute and a former aide to former GOP House Speaker John Boehner, told the Washington Post that Trump was directly responsible for the riots.
“I blame him completely,” Sommers said. “He has proven himself unworthy of the office of being president.”
The National Association of Manufacturers, a business group that opposes energy regulations and carbon taxes, said Vice President Mike Pence should weigh trying to remove Trump through the 25th Amendment.
