Less than two months into his presidency, an interesting dynamic appears to be playing out in the West Wing. Trump, who won the Electoral College with minimal help from establishment Republicans and even Priebus’ R.N.C., is far less reliant on the support of his party than the devotion of his potent base. And numerous maneuvers in his incipient administration—from his rabble-rousing with Mexico to his recent decision to overrule his national security adviser and use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” in his address to Congress—suggest the extent of Trump’s need to reciprocate the devotion. Whereas Trump does not need the support of many mainstream Republicans, he does need his base in order to prevent his unfavorable numbers from sliding further—and to have any chance at re-election in 2020. The base is not just a constituency but an interest group, too.

And unfortunately for Priebus, the base is also likely to make his job all but impossible. “I will never talk for Steve Bannon, but knowing Bannon the way I do, I think he was being genuine,” said Jen Lawrence, the vice president of the America First Project, an activist group founded by ex-Breitbart employees with the goal of supporting Trump’s populist agenda, regarding the camaraderie between Bannon and Priebus. (Bannon, of course, is the former chairman of the news organization.) But she also offered a caveat. “I think the one pushing what’s going on here is Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon and President Trump,” she theorized. “I think that Reince is good at making the trains run on time, and he’s a good instructor in showing people where to be, how to be, making the schedules, stuff like that. But I don’t think that he is a good front person for Donald Trump’s robust America First agenda. That really is the opposite of what the R.N.C. has been putting out for the past 8 years.” If Priebus rejected the G.O.P.’s traditional agenda, he had her support. “As long as that’s not the case, we are supportive of the awesome job that Reince is doing,” Lawrence told me.

Unfortunately for Priebus, countless Republicans are hoping that he will uphold that very agenda.

Washington’s latest arranged marriage has a long way to go. Breitbart journalists themselves have been wary of Priebus in the White House, at one point reporting that Priebus would possibly be axed after the Mike Flynn debacle, citing sources within the White House. A furious Bannon debunked the reports, telling CNN that he was “livid” with the insinuation and privately calling the reporter in question to reprimand him.

The defense was noble in public, but it may have been political stagecraft in itself. “They have to present that unity, but there can’t be unity, because Reince and Steve share totally different views on three key issues: immigration, trade, and foreign policy,” said the Trump transition official. “So when you have two folks who are so strikingly different on major issues, yet are forced to work together to implement the same agenda . . . there’s going to be major friction. It’s just a given.”

Trump surrogate and CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord noted that the sole job of a White House chief of staff is to execute the president’s vision, no matter what. But the deeper problem, according to the transition official, was that Priebus had brought R.N.C. types into the White House with him—people who had refused to even support Trump’s agenda during the campaign and were close to abandoning him upon the release of the Access Hollywood tapes. (The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) “It seems to me that Reince is more loyal to Reince than he is to Trump, and that’s not what you want in a chief of staff,” said the official. “I think he does have to go. He hasn’t shown loyalty to him.”