Republican politician quits party over Trump's 'erratic and misguided leadership' following Putin summit

Former Air Force Pilot Ken Rizer says he will not rejoin until the party 'recovers its values'

Donald Trump’s comments – made on Monday – were met with backlash and within 24 hours he had rowed back on them (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

A Republican politician has reportedly quit the party because of Donald Trump's “erratic and misguided leadership”.

Ken Rizer, a retired Air Force Pilot, took Facebook to announce his decision after the US leader met with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and suggested that he did not believe that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Trump said: “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia”

Facing a backlash at home, the president later suggested he misspoke had meant to say it "wouldn't" be Russia.

But not before Mr Rizer had announced he was leaving the party, according to the Des Moines Register.

“(Former national security adviser) HR McMaster wrote a fabulous book called Dereliction of Duty, which outlined how the joint chiefs failed to step up and oppose President (Lyndon) Johnson’s disastrous Vietnam War policy,” he said in a post that has since apparently been made inaccessible to the public.

Ken Rizer (Iowa legislature)

"Military officers read and studied this book, presumably so that we wouldn’t repeat similar mistakes. We’re at another such moment in our foreign affairs where people of character in this administration need to speak up or resign.

"As for me, I can no longer call myself a Republican given the erratic and misguided leadership of the president. I will always be a (Ronald) Reagan conservative, but find no place for such views in Trump’s world. Until the Republican Party recovers its values, my party affiliation will be ‘No party.’”

Mr Rizer, who served four sessions in the Iowa House, resigned in May after saying in 2016 that he would not vote for Mr Trump.