Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said on Tuesday that "I will vote for Republicans up and down the ballot.
"But when it comes to the presidency, I’m going to leave my ballot blank," Fleischer, who served President George W. Bush, said in an op-ed piece published Friday in The Washington Post.
"I voted against Donald Trump in the GOP primary and regularly criticized him," he said. "But on May 3, when he secured the Republican presidential nomination, I tweeted: 'There’s a lot about Donald Trump that I don’t like, but I’ll vote for Trump over Hillary [Clinton] any day.'
"Since then," Fleischer continued, "Trump has pretty much done everything in his power to make me change my mind."
Fleischer, who runs his own communications firm, detailed how "Trump lost control of himself and his message" — attacking a U.S.-born federal judge because of his Mexican heritage, slamming a Gold Star family and making assertions about "the legitimacy of the election.
"If this race were about change, Clinton or policy, Trump could win it," he said. "But he made it about himself.
"Because he is one of the most unpopular people ever to run for president, that was a big mistake."
However, "nothing will change if Clinton is elected, and that’s the problem," Fleischer said.
Amid this dilemma, "Election Day is coming. I need to decide.
"On Tuesday, if someone puts a gun to my head and tells me to make a choice, I’ll say 'shoot.'
"If my ballot contained a box for whom I was voting against, my choice would be easy," Fleischer said. "Never Clinton. But voting means deciding whom to vote for."