(NewsNation) — Although he maintained a wide lead in the GOP primary, current Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump has been a controversial figure even within his own party.
Former and current lawmakers, Republican strategists and previous members of his own administration have been staunch Trump critics. Trump’s detractors cite a number of reasons for this, including the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
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None of this has swayed Trump, though it remains to be seen how this lack of support from prominent Republicans will affect the November election.
Mike Pence
In a March interview with Fox News, Mike Pence, who had been the vice president in the Trump administration, revealed he would not endorse his former boss.
“Look, I’m incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure, and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world,” Pence said. “But that being said, during my presidential campaign, I made clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues.”
After his loss in the 2020 election, Trump falsely claimed that Pence, as vice president, had the power to change the outcome. Pence has repeatedly rejected this and said he’s “proud” that he certified the results, stating there’s “almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
However, this did not sit well with Trump’s supporters: On Jan. 6, rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and “Bring out Pence!” as they roamed the Capitol halls searching for him, while a mob set up a makeshift gallows on the field outside.
Former Vice President Mike Pence Mike Pence speaks at a luncheon hosted by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission during a Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)
Mitt Romney
Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” earlier this year that he is “absolutely not” supporting Trump in the 2024 election.
Two factors — policy and character — went into this decision, he said to Collins.
“Having a president who is so defaulted of character would have an enormous impact on the character of America,” Romney said. “And for me, that’s the primary consideration.”
When it comes to policy, Romney said he aligns with Trump domestically but not on foreign issues.
To CNN, Romney said Trump “shows more respect for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin than Vladimir Putin deserves.”
Susan Collins
A longtime moderate Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine didn’t vote for Donald Trump for president in 2016 or 2020 and stated in July that she would again choose someone else. In this case, she’s writing in former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who also ran in the Republican primary.
Speaking to WMTW-TV, Collins said Haley is her favorite candidate.
“I think she could do a great job,” Collins said. “She’s my choice, and that’s how I’m going to express it.”
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FILE – Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks during hearing on the fiscal year 2023 budget for the FBI in Washington, May 25, 2022. (Ting Shen/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan, who served as House speaker for two years of Trump’s presidency, has said Trump is not a “conservative” but an “authoritarian narcissist.”
“Character is too important to me,” Ryan, who was a U.S. representative for Wisconsin for two decades, said in a May interview with Yahoo Finance. “And it’s a job that requires the kind of character that he just doesn’t have.”
Still, Ryan also said he did not want to vote for Biden, who was still running at the time. Instead, Ryan told Yahoo he’d write someone in.
Chris Christie
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was a Republican presidential primary candidate in 2016 and 2024, said on Friday, July 19, that he’s not planning on voting for Trump this year.
On “The View,” Christie revealed that he hadn’t planned on supporting Biden either, saying that he’ll “vote down ticket.”
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Before the 2024 primary elections, Christie repeatedly attacked Trump and fielded attacks from him as well. He called the former president a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog,” adding that he “never admits a mistake, never admits a fault, who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong—but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right.”
“We have two awful choices here, in my view,” he said during a February appearance on “The View.” “The only thing I will commit to is: I’m not voting for Trump under any circumstances.”
Liz Cheney
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) testifies before the House Rules Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Not only was former GOP Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney the vice chair of the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, but she has also been a vocal critic of Trump in other arenas as well.
Last year, she warned in an appearance on CBS News that the United States is “sleepwalking into dictatorship” with the possible reelection of Trump — even stating that it could mean the end of the republic.
Cheney’s comments against Trump have drawn his ire: He posted in March on Truth Social that she “SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY! SHE ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE. UNREAL!!!”
In response, Cheney wrote in her own social media post that these are “lies.”
“You have had all the grand jury & J6 transcripts for many months. You’re trying to halt your 1/6 trial because your VP, WH counsel, WH aides, campaign & DOJ officials etc. will testify against you,” she wrote. “You’re afraid of the truth and you should be.”
Dick Cheney
The vice president for former President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, like his daughter Liz, has openly disapproved of Trump’s actions.
“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Dick Cheney said in a video posted on the Republicans Against Trump X account.
Adam Kinzinger
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Adam Kinzinger, a former GOP representative from Illinois, endorsed Biden’s now-defunct reelection bid in June, even though he calls himself a “proud conservative.”
“I’ve always put democracy and our Constitution above of all us,” Kinzinger said in a video announcing his support for Biden. “It’s because of my unwavering support for democracy that today, as a proud conservative, I’m endorsing Joe Biden for reelection.”
Kinzinger was one of two Republican members of the Jan. 6 investigative committee, along with Cheney.
Anthony Scaramucci
Anthony Scaramucci publicly fell out with Trump after he was fired after just 10 days as his White House communications director.
Now, filings with the Federal Election Committee show that Scaramucci gave $30,000 to Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign, according to the New York Post.
“I put my money where my mouth is,” Scaramucci told The Post, adding that Harris “will beat Trump.”
While he confirmed to the news outlet that he’s still a GOP voter, Scaramucci admitted that he’s “hanging by a thread as a Republican.”
He’s made comments critical of Trump before: After his former boss shared an image of a hog-tied Biden painted on the tailgate of a passing truck, Scaramucci slammed it as “disgraceful” during an interview on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live.”
On NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” a former White House communications director under Trump, Anthony Scaramucci, says the former president knows that his comments “are an act of bullying.”
The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project is a political action committee started by conservatives who opposed Trump and now aim to beat him in 2024. After Biden dropped out of the presidential election, they quickly voiced support for Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.
“Harris is the warrior America needs to soundly defeat Donald Trump and Project 2025,” the Lincoln Project said in a statement. “While we thank President Biden for his outstanding presidency and tenure of service, it’s time to turn a new leaf and re-energize voters towards achieving the goal Lincoln Project has held from Day 1–stop MAGA once-and-for-all at the ballot box this November.”
Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway was the husband of Kellyanne Conway, once Trump’s top adviser. The two announced in March that they were divorcing after two decades of marriage.
Although Conway stepped away from The Lincoln Project in 2020, saying at the time he was doing so to “devote more time to family matters,” per The Hill, he has still remained active in trying to defeat the former president. Most recently, he started the Anti-Psychopath Political Action Committee, which Conway says he founded to ” highlight the existential threat Donald Trump poses to democracy and remind voters of the former president’s mental unfitness for office.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
