One reason that some conservatives believe Mr. Trump’s support from the movement and its loyal lawmakers is so fragile is that it has been predicated on the sugar high of an election everyone told them they could not win against an opponent they loathed.
“I think the majority of conservatives celebrating his victory were really celebrating Hillary’s defeat,” said Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union. “And he was the conduit for that defeat.”
There are also serious policy questions that trouble conservatives, foremost among them what might happen to the federal deficit if Mr. Trump embarks on a plan to spend $1 trillion on revamping the nation’s infrastructure — a deal that many Democrats are eager to strike with him.
That is where Mr. Trump’s brand of transactional politics could become a liability.
“That was sort of the point of view of the tentative Trump supporters — you can do transactional politics with them,” said Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review.
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