Among Trump advisors, a battle for GOP’s soul rages

As a businessman who loves bargains, Donald Trump must be overjoyed with all the free advice he’s getting as president-elect.

In the days between the election and the inauguration of a new president, would-be advisors abound. They urge the adoption of this campaign promise, the discarding of that one. They push for executing particular campaign promises to the max – or the min. They suggest which of the predecessor’s policies should be continued and which axed.

All this happens with any incoming president. It’s happening a lot with Trump because the battle for the soul of the Republican Party continues. Oversimplified, it’s a contest between the conservatism of Ronald Reagan and what some call Big Government conservatism.

The key tenets of Reagan conservatism include tax cuts, small government, deregulation, free trade and a muscular foreign policy. Many Reagan conservatives are sympathetic to immigration, though strongly opposed to illegal immigration.

As the name implies, Big Government conservatism isn’t about shrinking the government, but about making it work harder for American workers. The emphasis is on giving more Americans high-paying jobs and restoring the middle class.

Its proponents like closed borders; they see the dependence of industries like agriculture and technology on immigrants – legal and illegal – as simply lowering the wages of native-born Americans who would otherwise fill those jobs were the pay on offer more generous. Big-government conservatives are on board with tariffs for the same reason; they think they promote manufacturing jobs.

Like Reagan conservatives, the big-government conservatives tend to favor deregulation. Environmental regulation in particular puts energy-industry jobs at risk,