Trump at odds with own party even before he takes office

Donald Trump speaks on the last day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, July 21, 2016. New York billionaire DonaldTrump officially accepted the presidential nomination of the U.S. Republican Party Thursday night on the final day of the Republican National Convention. [Xinhua/Yin Bogu]

US President-elect Donald Trump is at odds with his own party before his term has even started, and that could foreshadow a rocky presidency, experts said.

Republican Party presidential candidate Trump pulled off a surprise victory last month against rival Hillary Clinton and clinched the White House, proving wrong the vast majority of polls and experts who had predicted that Clinton would be the next president.

But deep divisions between Trump and the Republican Party are coming to the fore, and those are not likely to be smoothed over anytime soon.

"Trump's policies are far more populist, isolationist, and softer on some authoritarian regimes than the GOP traditionally has been," Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.

"While it is rooted in ideology, the groundswell of public support for Trump's policies among the public has concerned the establishment," he said.

"The Russia issue is just one part of a divide between Trump and the GOP establishment that has existed since the primaries," Mahaffee said.

On Monday, the top two Congressional Republicans said they would support an inquiry into accusations that Russia interfered in US elections in a bid to get the brash billionaire elected, as the Kremlin believes a Trump presidency might be favorable to Russia.

"Any foreign breach of our cyber security measures is disturbing, and I strongly condemn any such efforts. The Russians are not our friends," said Senator and GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell earlier this week.

Republican and House Speaker Paul Ryan echoed those sentiments, saying he backed a probe into whether Russia meddled in US elections.

The election season was marked by a number of releases of information by the website Wikileaks, including private emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign. Those emails brought some of Clinton's embarrassing secrets to light.

The Clinton campaign and others have accused Russia of being behind the Wikileaks, in an effort to help get Trump elected, as the New York mogul has said he would cut a deal for better relations with Russia if elected.

On Friday, a Washington Post report seemed to support those allegations, saying the US Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Russia was trying to help Trump win the election, although Trump dismissed the allegations, saying the hacks could have come from anywhere.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also said Russia was not the source of the leaks.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua that several of Trump's positions are at odds with his own party.

"He wants to mend relations with Russia, which many members of his party oppose. He opposes an investigation into whether Russia tried to influence the election. These differences will complicate the nominations of several people in his administration," he said.

Trump has put forward several people for cabinet who share his views on Russia, and that may threaten their confirmations, experts said.

Republicans hold a narrow 52 to 48 margin in the Senate, so it will not be easy to confirm individuals that do not have full GOP backing, as a Senate confirmation is required for approval of president's cabinet members, experts noted.

However, the GOP and Trump might be able to make amends, experts said.

Mahaffee said continuing to work with the GOP leadership in Washington -- and choosing cabinet appointments that know the establishment well -- will be key to bridging the gap with Republicans.

"However, as long as Trump continues to chart his own course, especially via some of the Twitter statements we see, that unpredictability will continue to raise concerns among the establishment," Mahaffee said, referring to Trump's often outlandish and unpredictable statements made on the US social media.