From my reading it's unverified that Trump's intention of setting up a third party is to dissuade senators thinking of voting against him. The story's source is from 'people familiar with Trump's thinking'. So on form this is most likely fake news gathered by journalists with agendas interviewing other journalists with the same agenda.
In registering the Patriot Party is may simply be a prudent move to avoid a form of domain'squatting down the track. And if he's convicted and barred from running, well there's more than a few ways to skin a cat, like nominating one of his kids. Whoever runs, they can be assured of a solid voting base already in place. It would be madness not to exploit this massive resource in some shape or form into the future.
