Face it — Trump doesn’t have Ronald Reagan’s broad personality appeal. So Republicans need to persuade Americans to vote the party rather than the man — and have a party platform worth voting for — when they have a candidate with personality negatives like Trump’s. This will also lead to downstream gains.
Independents probably are dominant over both the parties, so this survey doesn’t mean much.
Trump is a Populist. Republican by convenience. Which is exactly the correct configuration when the population is moving Independent.