I'm not a Trump guy but he is undeniably smart and he has been doing some polling. He's reeling in the conservative base by doing just enough policy wise to make him 'acceptable'. He's taking populist positions vis a vis China, trade and jihadists that will attract independents and Reagan democrats. And he's appealing to the country at large as somebody with the knowhow, toughness and command to right the economic ship of state.
Not my cup of tea Donald Trump but smart, tough and cynical enough to take positions he's never taken before and sell them. And he's a good salesman.
I believe you're right -- at least for a segment of the "conservative" base. And the fact that he's getting traction from it, speaks volumes about the intellectual capacity of that portion of the "conservative" base. He's selling something (cynically, I think), and they're buying.
He's taking populist positions ....
And that, I think, points to where Trump's support is really coming from. What you're calling a "conservative" base, seems to be much more a populist sort of movement than a conservative one. Politically and in mindset, I think Trump's target audience has a lot in common with the group that went for Perot back in '92.
I suspect, too, that Trump is drawing support from same demographic that both Palin and Huckabee draw from. It's just that his media footprint is so much larger, and so much better-established (over decades) that he can take his schtick to a broader audience.
It's fun to watch, I admit ... but it's not the sort of thing that will get him nominated, much less elected.