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I think Trump’s mindset is anti left rather than pro conservative.

He sees the government intruding on the private sector - over taxing, over regulating - killing industries, killing jobs. He sees the government failing to make people’s lives better - failing in health care, failing at education, failing in trade, failing at borders and security, failing in infrastructure.

As conservatives, we see all those failures as being the natural consequences of not being conservative, i.e. not limitting government as the Founding Fathers intended.

But I would argue that the Founders’ intentions were essentially pragmatic: they understood that individual freedom and enlightened self interest are the drivers of peace and prosperity, not collectivism and central control and planning. Collectivism leads to one size fits all non solutions and breeds corruption. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We principled conservatives speak, think and act from these conservative founding principles, which are built into our Constitution, but essentially they are rooted in the pragmatism and good sense of the Founding Fathers.

Donald Trump does not speak, think and act from conservative principles, so he does not use conservative jargon, nor quote the Constitution.

Yet, I think he is extremely pragmatic, extremely insightful, and (I believe) altruistic about the USA.

I think his pragmatism combined with his altruism has ultimately led him to the conclusion that the government has accumulated far too much power and must be scaled way, way back. In other words, he’ll do exactly what a conservative would do, but not because the Founding Fathers said so, or because it’s in the Constitution - he’ll do it because it makes sense, it’s pragmatic, it works.

We conservatives would be comforted to hear Trump talk like Ronald Reagan, defending and being led by the Constitution and the founding principles. I don’t think that’s who Trump is, and if he talked that way, I’m not sure he’d get very far politically.

I would like to give him a crack at fixing what’s wrong, using his pragmatic business approach. I love the Conservative Movement, but it hasn’t made a dent in the ascendency of Leftism - maybe Trump’s approach will succeed where the Conservative Movenent has failed.