Veteran GOP fundraiser and self-described “political hack” Miles Bruner announced Monday that he’s leaving the “Republican ecosystem.” On social media he wrote: “I can no longer be an accomplice to the GOP’s descent into authoritarianism. I just turned my back on a 12-year career in the Republican ecosystem, and I urge anyone else who harbors doubts to do the same.”
During his career with the Republican Party, Bruner said he “worked inside GOP circles through Trump’s takeover of the party, his initial downfall, and his resurgence in 2023–2024. At every step along the way, I rationalized, compartmentalized, and found excuses to stay tethered to the party, even as I grew to believe it was undermining the foundations of our constitutional republic. But over the last few months, the compartmentalization and coping stopped working to silence my conscience.”
In a Bulwark op-ed titled ‘My Last Day as an Accomplice of the Republican Party,’ Bruner wrote: “Since Donald Trump descended that golden escalator in 2015, the Republican party has devolved into a cult of personality that mirrors the worst authoritarian regimes of the last one hundred years.”
I can no longer be an accomplice to the GOP’s descent into authoritarianism. I just turned my back on a 12-year career in the Republican ecosystem, and I urge anyone else who harbors doubts to do the same.
Read my full article on the @Bulwark: https://t.co/o75QLgnt54
— Miles Bruner
(@MilesBruner1) October 20, 2025
In the article, Bruner notes all the times he could have quit but didn’t (“The January 6th insurrection wasn’t enough for me to leave”), his remorse (“I wish I had realized this sooner”) and a call to doubting career Republicans to follow his example and leave the party (“Today, I quit allowing my complacency to destroy America, and I urge you to quit, too”).
Note: Since publishing the post on Monday, Bruner’s X account has closed. According to X, the account “no longer exists.” The Bulwark shared its Bruner interview with managing editor Sam Stein and Bruner, below, who said, “I’d like to think there’s more like me.”
Miles Bruner spent years working inside Republican politics until he could no longer look away.
He talks with @samstein on what it took to finally say enough, the moral cost of silence, and why stepping away was the only way forward. pic.twitter.com/x2XnEpo9ji
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) October 21, 2025
The opinion that Trump 2.0 is more extreme is also held by other Republicans who have worked closely with and for the President. A similar assertion is made below by former Trump National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in his interview with The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg. McMaster says that the second Trump presidency features a POTUS who is “less patient” and has a “deeper sense of aggrievement.”