many republicans looked askance at donald trump when he emerged victorious from the gop primaries. some openly opposed him even after he became their party<u+2019>s presidential nominee. where does that leave the party now that mr. trump is president-elect? sen. tom cotton (r., ark.), discussed the state of the republican party with kimberley strassel, editorial board member of the wall street journal. edited excerpts follow. ms. strassel: what are the big differences between today<u+2019>s republican party and the one 10 years ago? in isolation from donald trump. sen. cotton: our party, both the grass roots and in congress now, is much more of a pro-market party, rather than a pro-business party. we<u+2019>re focused on the operation of markets and the free-enterprise system. we celebrate businesses that succeed. but we recognize that in a market-based system, we<u+2019>re not there to put our finger on the scale for this or that business or industry. we<u+2019>ve gone back to a real focus, too, on the constitution. i<u+2019>m not talking primarily about individual liberties, i<u+2019>m talking about the structure of our government, the need to rein in executive agencies, and the need to restore structural balance between washington and the state governments. ms. strassel: do you think donald trump is changing the party, or is he a response to changed voters out there? sen. cotton: he<u+2019>s both. most successful presidential candidates are both. they sometimes see things that are true, that too many politicians, too many elites in culture and business and media and the academy, miss. presidential candidates who succeed do take their parties in different directions as well. out in places like arkansas, indiana and wisconsin, iowa, pennsylvania, there are a lot of people who feel ill-served by washington, d.c. they feel ill-served by some of the policies that have either been implemented under the obama administration, like obamacare, or some of the policies that you got a bipartisan<u+2014>but in my opinion, wrong<u+2014>consensus on, like immigration. donald trump was speaking to their very practical concerns. he went into economically distressed areas and said, <u+201c>i<u+2019>m going to bring jobs back to you,<u+201d> and hillary clinton, she<u+2019>d say, <u+201c>i<u+2019>m going to bring you more obamacare and mass immigration.<u+201d> it<u+2019>s not surprising what the results of that election were. ms. strassel: how will congress work with donald trump on trade, given what he has said, pulling out of nafta and abandoning, in general, what has long been an american pro-trade agenda? sen. cotton: i<u+2019>ll leave the details of trade policy to donald trump. but sometimes the expressions in the media of his opposition to trade are overstated. to my knowledge, donald trump has never said that he<u+2019>s opposed to trade. he thinks a lot of our trade deals have been bad for the u.s. and if you compare some of the promises that were made, in the last 15, 25 years about these trade deals, he<u+2019>s got a case to make there. ms. strassel: in what way? sen. cotton: if you listen to politicians who were selling those deals and you compare the results, there<u+2019>s simply a mismatch between the rhetoric and the results. that<u+2019>s one reason why so many people are disappointed with politicians in washington, because they consistently do overpromise and underdeliver. the day after british citizens voted to leave the european union, donald trump was in scotland, where he has a golf course, celebrating the brexit vote. and he said that day that we need to have a free-trade deal with great britain, which tells me he<u+2019>s not opposed to trade deals, he wants better trade deals. ms. strassel: will u.s. trade policy feature more country-by-country deals<u+2014>and a distinction between developed countries and developing countries? sen. cotton: yeah. bilateral deals are easier to negotiate than multilateral ones. donald trump, i think, will probably pursue some of them. ms. strassel: where do donald trump and republicans agree or disagree on immigration? what are the prospects for a comprehensive immigration reform? sen. cotton: comprehensive immigration reform is a washington code word for mass immigration and amnesty. so the prospects for that are very low. ms. strassel: what are the prospects for real reform to our immigration system? sen. cotton: i hope that we<u+2019>ll address this very early, and in a sweeping fashion. write to reports@wsj.com
where republicans and trump go from here - wsj
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