As I have noted repeatedly, the GOP is made up of four ideological factions: Christian Democrats; Pro-Business Pragmatists (PBPs); Conservative Libertarians; and Reactionaries. Trump ran as a representative of the Reagan Coalition, which consists of PBPs and Reactionaries; what set him apart from most Reagan Coalition candidates was his willingness to openly embrace Reactionary positions to which most other GOP candidates typically just give lip service.
Reactionaries and PBPs have diametrically opposed views on a number of issues, such as immigration, tax cuts for the wealthy, free trade, and entitlement cuts. How is Trump managing these potential conflicts thus far?
With head fakes, rumors, and misdirection plays. He lets it be known that he is considering a much more business-friendly position on immigration in his State of the Donald speech, but it never materializes. He selects deficit hawks for his cabinet, but then presents a budget framework without cuts to Social Security and Medicare. He says his tax cut plan will focus on the middle class in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary. He talks constantly about trade issues, but he hasn’t actually taken any protectionist actions yet. And so on.
Of course, this kind of balancing act can’t go on forever; at some point, he has to actually deliver the goods instead of just keeping everyone’s hopes up. We’ll know where he actually stands by the end of the year.