SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump will take office next week with a Republican-controlled Congress and a unified party supporting his agenda. And as the GOP turns to governance, there are differing ideas within the party about how to implement Trump's vision. NPR's Stephen Fowler joins us with a 10,000-foot view on the state of the Republican Party. Hey, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So it really seems like Republicans should be unified. No reason not to be - is that the case?
FOWLER: Well, basically, yes. For maybe the first time in the decade Trump's been on the political scene, everyone seems to be rowing in the same direction, and that's Trump's direction. It's helpful to think about unity looking at a few different groups within the party. One, the Republican National Committee has its winter meeting this week. They're going to be celebrating a sweep of the presidential battlegrounds. They took control of the Senate and held the House. And they had this coordinated effort with the Trump campaign to boost early voting and target low-turnout voters.
So the party infrastructure was all in alignment, and it paid off. This comes a year after Trump called for new leadership at the RNC. He's sticking by current chairman Michael Whatley to run things, and that's a notable contrast to Democrats searching for both new leadership and a new vision.
DETROW: So that's the national party, the national party apparatus. What about Congress?
FOWLER: There's not really much of a vocal or meaningful opposition to Trump's agenda or style the way there was back in 2017 when he first took office. This is a very Trump-friendly House and Senate, but it's also where you start to see some of these differences pop up. Trump promised a sweeping agenda on the campaign trail, and House and Senate leaders are differing on how to pass said agenda.
House Republicans have a narrow majority, and the leaders there prefer one mega MAGA bill, dealing with everything from Trump's energy policy, national security, tax cuts, spending cuts. Senate Republican leadership leans toward splitting up his agenda into two measures. Then, of course, there's Trump, who said last week that the final outcome is more important to him than what actually the process looks like to get there.
DETROW: So that's the party, and that's Congress. What are some other key factions you're going keep an eye on?
FOWLER: Well, the internet, Scott. I mean, social media fights drove a lot of the discussion and debate and detours in campaign policy last year. Also, billionaire Elon Musk owns the site X, which has become more of a hub for conservative political influencing to happen. Musk and other tech leaders are seeing their influence grow ahead of the second Trump term as they become more aligned with the economic part of Trump's agenda.
DETROW: Right, and Musk especially has been such a key figure since the election. How does he, and people like him, fit into this broader MAGA group, though, that's been around with Trump for three national elections now?
FOWLER: Well, the Republican big tent does have some growing pains underneath it, Scott. As a case in point, there's been this blowup over H-1B visas for skilled immigrant tech workers. Musk and others like him say recruiting the best of the best to come work in the U.S. is America first, like Donald Trump wants. Then there are others, like one-time Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who say that America first means curbing legal immigration, too.
But think of it this way, Scott. Instead of there being a winning side and a losing side, the likely path forward policy-wise is a compromise somewhere in between, like most issues in politics. And, really, this underscores the reality that no party is a monolith, even one that is largely in agreement with Donald Trump and his plans.
DETROW: That is NPR's Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thanks a lot.
FOWLER: Thank you.
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