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Which Republican leaders publicly called for Trump to resign and on what dates?
Executive summary
Available sources show multiple moments — chiefly around January 2021 and in the post–2024/2025 shutdown fights — when some Republicans publicly urged President Trump to leave office or criticized him sharply; examples include Sen. Pat Toomey saying “the best way for our country” would be for Trump “to resign and go away” (reported Jan. 10, 2021) and former Sen. Jeff Flake describing growing GOP dissent in 2025 [1] [2]. Coverage in the supplied material is fragmented: some pieces document explicit calls for resignation [1] [3], others record private-recording evidence or broader Republican dissent without enumerating an exhaustive list or specific dates for every leader [4] [2].
1. January 2021: Republican leaders break publicly with Trump after the Capitol attack
After the January 6, 2021 Capitol violence, several high-profile Republicans publicly said Trump should leave office; the sources include reporting that Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania stated on Jan. 10 that “the best way for our country” would be for Trump “to resign and go away as soon as possible” and that other prominent Republicans called for his removal or resignation in that window [1] [5]. PBS and AP contemporaneous summaries document a small but notable group of GOP figures urging resignation or removal during those crisis days [3] [5].
2. Private comments surfaced that suggested Republican leaders considered urging resignation
A leaked January 10, 2021 audio of House GOP leadership captured then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying he would tell Trump he should resign — an exchange McCarthy later publicly denied — illustrating the gap between private deliberations and public statements among GOP leaders at the time [4]. The existence of the tape shows internal Republican debate even where public resignation demands were politically fraught [4].
3. Former officials and anti‑Trump Republicans who publicly urged resignation
Beyond sitting senators, former Republican officials also made explicit calls in the aftermath: for example, John Bolton — a former national security adviser — publicly called for Trump to resign, even while contesting some removal mechanisms, according to the impeachment/aftermath coverage [1]. That source shows a subset of ex-official Republicans willing to break with Trump publicly and call for his immediate exit [1].
4. 2025 political realignments and renewed GOP dissent (not identical to explicit resignation calls)
In 2025, reporting describes growing GOP dissent over Trump’s handling of the government shutdown and other fights; The Hill quotes former Sen. Jeff Flake saying the Republican Party was “beginning to move away from President Trump,” which signals public criticism but the article does not list a comprehensive roster of sitting Republican leaders calling explicitly for resignation on specified dates [2]. Other 2025 pieces document intra‑GOP tensions, resignations within allied organizations, and calls for resignations of party officials in response to scandals, but these are different phenomena from calls for the president to resign [6] [7].
5. What the provided sources do and do not contain — limits of the record
The supplied documents explicitly cite Pat Toomey’s Jan. 10, 2021 remark and cite John Bolton’s public call to resign [1] [5]. They also include reporting that McCarthy’s private comments about urging resignation were recorded and later disputed [4]. However, the current set of sources does not provide a comprehensive, dated list enumerating every Republican leader who publicly demanded Trump’s resignation across all relevant episodes; available sources do not mention an exhaustive list beyond those named [1] [4] [3] [2].
6. Competing interpretations and political incentives
Different Republican actors had competing incentives: sitting Republicans faced electoral and institutional pressure that made public resignation calls rare, while former officials and anti‑Trump groups were freer to demand immediate exit — a distinction visible in the sources [1] [4]. Some reporting shows GOP leaders privately considering urging resignation but publicly avoiding it to preserve unity or electoral standing [4]. Where sources record resignation calls, they tend to come from individuals outside Trump’s inner circle or from private recordings made public [1] [4].
7. Bottom line for readers seeking dates and names
From the sources provided: Pat Toomey publicly urged resignation on or around Jan. 10, 2021 [1] [5]; John Bolton (a former official) publicly called for Trump’s resignation during the same general episode [1]. Kevin McCarthy was recorded saying he would urge resignation on Jan. 10, 2021, though he later denied making that statement publicly [4]. For a fuller, dated roster of every Republican leader who publicly called for Trump to resign and the exact dates, available sources do not provide an exhaustive list in this packet; additional reporting beyond these documents would be required (not found in current reporting).
If you want, I can search for more contemporaneous pieces or an aggregated timeline (specific dates and direct quotes) to build a more complete list using broader reporting beyond the supplied sources.