Politics

Trump made the GOP a big-tent party. Now, he’s stuck with the infighting.

Published

1 year ago

January 14, 2025

A coalition of MAGA die-hards, tech bros and blue-collar workers were key to Donald Trump’s November victory.

Now, some of them are already at each other’s throats.

Free traders and protectionists are at odds over Trump’s promise to enact “universal” tariffs. Immigration hard-liners are butting heads with tech companies that support legal immigration. And isolationists are grappling with the president-elect’s apparently increasingly expansionist global agenda.

And days before he takes office some of Trump’s most ardent original supporters have been the most resistant to the bigger tent.

“There’s going to be a fundamental ideological clash between the original MAGA base that supported President Trump from the beginning and the tech overlords who are literally buying influence so that they can try to manipulate and change our foreign policy and our tech policy and our immigration policy,” said Laura Loomer, the controversial conservative activist who said she lost premium features on X due to disagreeing with Elon Musk on immigration policy.

These clashes, including opening shots in recent days from longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon at the president-elect’s new companion Musk, presage the challenges Trump faces in governing his newly big-tent Republican Party.

But some Trump allies argue these divides are a feature — not a bug — of Trump’s governing style. During his first administration, the president-elect was known for running his Cabinet like an executive boardroom: He brought together a cadre of diverse interests, let them duke it out and then, on his own, decided the path forward. That strategy, of encouraging competition among his advisers, allowed Trump to retain the ultimate decision-making authority and prevented any one group from gaining too much power.

“Whenever one of these issues comes up and there’s a fight, like between Steve Bannon and Elon Musk, and I’m like, well, whose name is on the ballot? Trump’s,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist who was at one point considered for the president-elect’s press secretary post. “His personal and his political influence is at its apex. And so if there’s a fight or a division going on, and he’s got two people who are legitimately allies of Trump and want to see him do well but they’re fighting or competing for his ear on something, ultimately, his power and influence here is going to settle it, I would imagine, rather quickly. There’s no more powerful person in Washington right now.”

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the schism between hardcore MAGA loyalists and Musk over H-1B visas — which are designed to allow companies to bring skilled foreign workers to the U.S. but have drawn the ire of some Democrats and Republicans — some Trump loyalists like Loomer and Bannon have also attacked noted venture capitalists and players in the tech world.

“This is only the first of many eruptions and fractures between the MAGA base and the so-called Tech Right as they call themselves — and I say ‘as they call themselves’ because these guys are not right wing — they decided to support Trump after he was almost assassinated, but their voting record and their political giving history shows [otherwise],” Loomer said.

$“This is only the first of many eruptions and fractures between the MAGA base and the so-called Tech Right as they call themselves,$

In an interview with Blue Light News, Bannon also took aim at tech funders Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, who are said to have Trump’s ear — and even questioned his pick of Ken Howery to be ambassador to Greenland due to his ties to Thiel.

“I hope our efforts in Greenland are not associated with that,” Bannon said.

Trump observers say the spat reflects a long-standing truth in Trump world — being in his inner circle is always a moving target. The president-elect has long had a reputation for making policy decisions based on the last person he talked to about an issue.

“Steve Bannon has been in his ear for a long time, something of a base whisperer, yet now we see Elon coming into prominence,” said Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and former Trump administration appointee. But “at the end of the day, it is [Trump’s] decision — whether it’s H-1B visas, whether it’s critical foreign policy — and he has no problem asserting himself and leaving others out in the cold. The king whisperer can easily find himself on the other side of the moat.”

Trump’s first administration was chock full of groups that were at odds with each other: establishment Republicans and MAGA outsiders; policy pragmatists and ideologues; hawks and isolationists; institutionalists and loyalists; and family and non-family. Those splits allowed Trump to frame himself as the ultimate consensus-builder and dealmaker, including with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the renegotiation of NAFTA.

And he appears to be taking the same approach ahead of his second term. Already, Trump quickly tamped down any would-be opposition to Mike Johnson’s speakership, and he has expressed his preference for one “big, beautiful bill” on reconciliation.

Because so many diverse interests came together to elect Trump, even including some Democrats and independents, Trump allies argue that it’s inevitable he’ll make a decision that at least some of his supporters disagree with. Last week, he roiled isolationists when he wouldn’t rule out using military force to annex Greenland and regain control over the Panama Canal, seemingly expanding the “America First” agenda of his first term to a more expansionist vision.

Anti-abortion groups have been frustrated by his pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. And more traditional conservatives haven’t been happy with his choice of strongly pro-union Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) as Labor secretary.

A former Trump official, granted anonymity to assess a fraught moment for the movement, also argued that this is the most unified the country has been around the president-elect since he first entered office.

The Laura Loomers and Steve Bannons of the world “feel like they built Trump, they made Trump Trump, and they want to leverage it like a purity test,” the person said. “That doesn’t work with a coalition this big.”

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Trump questioned Mike Collins about his hardline abortion stance before endorsing him

Published

1 hour ago

June 16, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement of Rep. Mike Collins early Sunday morning surprised even some of the Georgia Republican’s aides and advisers, who thought a tense White House meeting had all but ended his chances of securing the president’s support.

In that meeting just weeks earlier, Trump repeatedly raised Collins’ hardline stance on abortion, pressing him on how he could win in a general election for Georgia’s marquee Senate race, according to three people familiar with the meeting, granted anonymity to speak about the private discussions.

The late May sit-down was dominated by the issue of abortion, the people said. Those close to Collins walked away thinking that getting Trump’s endorsement was unlikely. One person close to the White House and familiar with the meeting said it was consistent with how the president typically works through key issues with potential endorsees before making a decision.

The interaction underscores how questions over electability are top of mind for the president this cycle, especially in a critical battleground, and as abortion remains a political vulnerability for the GOP.

Yet on Sunday, the president publicly backed Collins in the early hours of his 80th birthday in a post on Truth Social, upending the GOP Senate runoff in its closing days and delivering a blow to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s candidate of choice, former college football coach Derek Dooley.

Collins and Trump spoke shortly before the president issued his 1 a.m. endorsement, two people familiar with the call said. The post shocked some Collins aides, who woke up to the news.

Abortion has been a thorn in Trump’s side politically in recent years. He’s faced criticism from anti-abortion advocates for not doing enough to advance their agenda, while trying to avoid alienating the broader electorate on an issue that has proven to be political dynamite for Democrats in recent cycles.

As Republicans prepare for political headwinds in November, they are trying to avoid some of the electability problems that plagued some 2022 midterm campaigns — especially in Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has since emerged as a formidable opponent.

During a 2022 debate for his current House seat, Collins said, “I have always stated and I’ve always been and always will be 100 percent pro-life, period. No exceptions,” a position that put him to the right of Trump on the politically potent issue of abortion.

But Collins represents a deep-red district. Running statewide, in a major battleground state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in a decade, he’s shifted his position.

Asked recently on the campaign trail about his views on abortion, Collins said he supports “Georgia’s heartbeat law, which includes exceptions, 100 percent,” according to a video of the remarks obtained by Blue Light News. Georgia’s current abortion law bans the procedure in most cases after about six weeks — with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.

Trump’s concerns about Collins’ strict stance were not unfounded. Polling shows large majorities of Americans oppose bans that include no exceptions for rape or incest.

The president’s reluctance to get off the sidelines in Georgia’s Senate runoff loomed over the contest for months. His backing has been a pivotal factor in other Republican primaries this cycle, often providing candidates with a decisive boost.

Both Collins and Dooley spent weeks jockeying for Trump’s support. The endorsement is expected to provide a late boost to Collins — though it arrived after early voting had already concluded and just days before the runoff, giving him less time to capitalize on it.

Conversations between Collins and the White House began the same night that he advanced to the runoff last month, according to a person familiar with the talks, granted anonymity to discuss private details at the time.

Collins had already lined up support from groups aligned with the president’s MAGA movement. Club for Growth PAC, the powerful GOP super PAC closely allied with Trump, backed Collins early in the primary. He also touted support from Turning Point Action and close allies of the president like Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), a former top adviser.

Trump further reaffirmed his support for Collins in a tele-rally late Monday afternoon from France, where he had arrived ahead of his meetings at the G7.

“Mike is a special guy, a special congressman, a special person, and so I’d like to have everybody go out and get out and vote for this man. We love Georgia, you know,” Trump said, pivoting to swipe at Dooley for not voting in 2016 or 2020, and for making a comment in which he correctly said that Trump lost the 2020 election in Georgia.

“He said he didn’t think I won the election in 2020, and I won it by a lot,” Trump falsely claimed.

Dooley and Kemp, asked about the president’s endorsements in a Monday morning press conference, both demurred. “A vote for Mike Collins is a vote for Jon Ossoff. A vote for me is a vote for the people of Georgia,” Dooley said.