They would have had Pence as president and been able to fulfill their agenda with barely any media pushback. Instead, Trump lost them both the presidency and the senate, after losing them the house in 2018. He tarnished their brand and appears to be splitting their party.
that implies the media is the actual power, they aren't. the media carefully controls the actual power, the people with their votes. For the center and the libs the media is very in control, for the right it's far more complicated. The media follows and guides the right, unlike with the centrists and the liberals where the media outright tells them what to believe and like good little drones they do it. The right however is always pushing to be more racist and more horrible, and the media knows that's not where they need to go (for their business interests) but they also know that if they oppose that rightward drift that they'll be relegated to nothingness. So they use dogwhistles and little hints to show the right wing they are on the same side, but then attempt to push the right to whatever business-friendly direction they in the media want. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Trump is a big example of it not working.