'It's appalling': Dozens of Bush-era GOP officials are fleeing the 'cult of Trump' Republican Party

Officials say they will not return until the party disassociates itself from Mr Trump

Republican officials from the George W Bush administration have fled the GOP in droves, calling it "the cult of Trump".  

According to Reuters, the mass exodus is driven by the party's unwillingness to hold Mr Trump accountable for the attack on Congress by his supporters on 6 January.  

Some disillusioned Republicans hoped that Mr Trump finally leaving the White House while facing a second impeachment would make him so repellant that the party would have no choice but to distance itself from him and move on.  

However, it appears not even the stink of sedition and death can break the hold Mr Trump has over the party; Republicans in the Senate have largely signalled they plan to vote to acquit the former president when he faces his second impeachment trial later this month.  

Faced with that reality, dozens of Republicans appear to be abandoning the party.  

"The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I'd call it the cult of Trump," Jimmy Furule, undersecretary of the Treasury and Financial Intelligence during the Bush administration, told Reuters.  

According to Kristopher Purcell, a Bush-era communications officer, approximately 60 to 70 former Bush officials are either leaving the party or cutting ties over its allegiance to Trump.  

"The number is growing every day," Mr Purcell said. "We have QAnon members of Congress. It's appalling."

During a recent interview, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox Business that the civil war between Trump loyalists and traditional conservatives was a "spat" but that the party would come together.  

If it does not, Republican strategists fear the party will be split during national elections and lose as a result.  

Ms McDaniel appears confident the party will find common ground, but that may a more difficult proposal than she projects.  

Rosario Marin, formerly a Treasurer of the US during the Bush years, suggested that people like her would not be returning without significant change to the party's loyalties.  

"If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back," Ms Marin said. "Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders."  

It should be noted that these former Bush officials served under a president that started an illegal war that has lasted two decades, cost the US at least $757bn, and left an estimated 200,000 civilians dead.