“For the past year, he’s done pretty much everything conservatives could have wanted,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union. “In the past, Republican presidents have done conservative things to appeal to the base and then done not-so-conservative things to try to broaden their appeal. They’ve kind of ping-ponged. Trump has really doubled down.”
The pattern has become so pronounced that even some of Trumps’s Republican critics acknowledge that — beyond the inflammatory tweetstorms, name-calling and other antics — he is pushing an agenda friendly to their interests and has not aggressively pursued anti-trade moves and other actions that would alarm them.
“As someone who’s been critical of Trump, there’s a lot that his administration is doing that I like,” said Doug Heye, a Republican consultant and former communications director for the Republican National Committee, who said he was particularly pleased with Trump’s judicial picks and other personnel choices.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member