Trump has reams of political capital, despite his unpopularity

Trump’s strong connection with his populist base is one reason Republicans are inclined to follow the president-elect’s leadership, despite his low approval numbers.

House and Senate Republicans have to win re-nomination next year in advance of the midterms, and few want to be on the other end of Trump Twitter bomb that pushes voters toward any opponent who might challenge them in a primary.

Republicans also are impressed with how Trump won. He lost the national popular vote by a few million.

But the New York real estate magnate, having never run for office before, defeated more than a dozen primary opponents. And then, without the help of much of his party, he won a strong Electoral College victory by seizing three states the GOP hadn’t won in a presidential election in three decades and that have long functioned as a sort of Republican Holy Grail: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin…

“Trump has political capital because he won the presidency with relatively little help from Congressional Republicans,” Conant said. “He moves into the White House with few political debts.”