I think the potential Trump poses to the entire party structure just terrifies them. And it means their creepy consultants will all be unemployed.
There’s a very simple explanation. Washington has its own distinct culture and it is almost exclusively a culture of insiders, regardless of political affiliation or ideology. Insiders of both parties run the show and can be reasonably described as liberals or perhaps moderate liberals. This culture includes pols and reporters, obviously, but also high-ranking department officials, senior congressional aides, judges and various other well-placed people. All of them follow the same rules and power is far, far, FAR more important than actually doing anything for the people who voted them in. “House of Cards,” aside from its more dramatic flourishes, is a remarkably accurate portrayal of how DC works.
Little terrifies official Washington more than an outsider who won’t play by the rules. It’s not just the mainstream press and the “GOP Elite,” however one defines that, who’s afraid of/put off by Trump. It’s essentially the entire DC culture who find his ideas and his personality most unwelcome.
I personally neither celebrate nor decry the DC culture. I accept it as a fact of life that will never genuinely change and most certainly never welcome outsiders. I think it’s a giant, tremendous mistake to think that Trump’s presence will change anything should he win election. They will chew him up and spit him out.