Anyone who's under the impression that Trump's a Conservative is seriously delusional and needs meds. By Trump's own admission, he considers himself a fiscal Conservative and a social Liberal.
IMO even the fiscal Conservative claim I think is suspect, perhaps that just me.
Having said all that, I posted on here long ago that Trump's more of a "populist" candidate. About a month or so ago I posted something along the lines that Trump's appeal spans traditional political lines and boundaries, and that along with grassroots "Conservatives" and evangelical voters, Trump was also attracting the Yellow-Dog and Blue-Dog democrats which means he's dipping into the traditional union strong-hold that the Democrats have had on the Unions, and the Blue Dog Democrats that used to be called the Reagan Democrats.
I hold to those words. It's interesting to watch how Trump's learning quickly to refine his message and use the media in a similar way that Reagan did back in 1980.
That's NOT to call Trump "Reaganesque" by any stretch. He's not. It's just a narrow similarity between the two.
Yup, that is what Trump really is - a populist. More precisely an anti-intellectual, populist protectionist with some conservative positions that happen to be some big ones people care about now (namely dealing with the border and immigration). The protectionist part would be rejected by most conservatives but he is framing it more as nationalism which appeals to many people. And after years of endless "blame America first" and "apology tours" I do agree we could use a bit of nationalism.
I don't believe Trump is an ideological conservative at all. I don't think he is grounded in conservative thought and that means I really don't trust that he would default to conservative positions in office. However, before making the assumption that he'd go off the rails as President we have to look at who he is surrounding himself with. Going to someone like Jeff Sessions for immigration ideas is a good start. If he continues going to conservatives for help with detailed policy positions, a lot of ideological conservatives may have less doubts about him overall.
The fact that Trump is challenging the mainstream media narrative and attacking political correctness are two things I really like about him and as he is generally coming from the right in those areas which is somewhat reassuring.
Still, populism has a history of ending badly - whether that be the left or right versions. The idea that he is promoting that we'd all be rich and everything would be terrific if it weren't for Mexico, China, Japan, etc, is truly nonsense. There is no way to go back to the post WW2 world where the US was the country in such better shape than everyone else we could afford absurdly expensive union contracts and a monopoly on much of the worlds manufacturing/industry.
Anyway, I agree with your original point - when Trump or any candidate says something we agree with it is intellectually honest to say so. More than that, there is no reason we all can't be agreeable and compliment one another's preferred candidate if they do something deserving of applause.