A coalition of MAGA fans, techies and blue-collar workers was key to Donald Trump’s victory in November.
Now, some of them are already fighting each other.
Free traders and protectionists are at odds over Trump’s promise to enact “universal” tariffs. Immigration hardliners are taking on tech companies that support legal immigration. And isolationists are grappling with the president-elect’s seemingly increasingly expansionist global agenda.
And days before he takes office, some of Trump’s most ardent original supporters have been the most resistant to a bigger tent.
“There will 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 they can try to manipulate and change our foreign policy, our technology policy and our immigration policy. ”said Laura Loomer, the controversial conservative activist who said it lost premium features on X due to his disagreement with Elon Musk over immigration policy.
These clashes, including the opening shots in recent days by Trump’s old ally Steve Bannon against the president-elect’s new partner, Musk, foreshadow the challenges Trump faces in governing his new Republican Party.
But some Trump allies argue that these divisions 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 gathered a group of diverse interests, let them face off, and then, on his own, decided a path forward. That strategy, of encouraging competition among his advisers, allowed Trump to retain final decision-making authority and prevented any one group from gaining too much power.
“Every time one of these issues comes up and there’s a fight, like between Steve Bannon and Elon Musk, and I think, well, whose name is on the ballot? Trump,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist who at one point was considered for the president-elect’s press secretary job. “His personal and political influence is at its peak. So if there’s a fight or a split, and he has two people who are legitimately Trump allies and want him to do well, but they’re fighting or competing for his attention on something, ultimately his power and influence here. will fix it, I imagine, fairly quickly. “There is no more powerful person in Washington right now.”
Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Beyond the schism between MAGA loyalists and Musk over H-1B visas, which are designed to allow companies to bring skilled foreign workers to the US but have drawn the ire of some Democrats and Republicans, some loyalists Trump, Loomer and Bannon have also attacked prominent venture capitalists and players in the technology world.
“This is just the first of many eruptions and fractures between the MAGA base and the so-called tech right, as they call themselves (and I say ‘what they call themselves’ because these guys are not right-wing), decided to support to Trump after he was nearly assassinated, but his voting record and his political donation history show (the opposite),” Loomer said.
In an interview with POLITICO, Bannon also took aim at tech financiers Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, who are said to have Trump’s support, and even questioned his choice of Ken Howery as ambassador to Greenland because of his ties to Thiel. .
“I hope our efforts in Greenland are not associated with that,” Bannon said.
Trump watchers say the dispute reflects a long-standing truth in Trump’s world: Being in his inner circle is always a moving target. The president-elect has for a long time it had a reputation to make political decisions based on the last person you spoke to about an issue.
“Steve Bannon has been in his ear for a long time, kind of a vicious whisperer, but now we see Elon rising to prominence,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump administration appointee. But “at the end of the day, it’s (Trump’s) decision – whether it’s H-1B visas or critical foreign policy – and he has no problem imposing himself and leaving others in the cold. The Whisperer King can easily be found on the other side of the moat.”
Trump’s first administration was filled with groups that were at odds with each other: establishment Republicans and MAGA outsiders; pragmatists and political ideologues; hawks and isolationists; institutionalists and loyalists; and family and non-family. Those divisions allowed Trump to present himself as the ultimate consensus-builder and negotiator, including with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the renegotiation of NAFTA.
And he appears to be taking the same approach heading into his second term. Trump has already quickly quelled any potential opposition to Mike Johnson’s presidency, and has expressed his preference for a “big, beautiful bill” on reconciliation.
Because so many diverse interests came together to elect Trump, including some Democrats and independents, Trump’s allies argue that it is inevitable that he will make a decision that at least some of his supporters disagree with. Last week, he angered isolationists when he did not rule out using military force to annex Greenland and regain control over the Panama Canal, apparently expanding the “America First” agenda of his first term to a more expansionist vision.
Anti-abortion groups have been frustrated by his choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services. And more traditional conservatives have not been happy with their choice of strongly pro-union Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) as labor secretary.
A former Trump official, granted anonymity to assess a tense moment for the movement, also argued that this is the most unity the country has had around the president-elect since he first took office.
The Laura Loomers and Steve Bannons of the world “feel like they built Trump, they made Trump.” Triumphand they want to use it as a test of purity,” the person said. “That doesn’t work with such a large coalition.”