That is, of course, the million dollar question.
And at the risk of sounding flippant, it comes down to a personal prejudice: I don't believe one can reach the level of success Trump has reached, in the business he has reached it, while being an ideological liberal.
He's not some computer whiz-kid who has fallen onto a vast fortune simply by virtue of being the first to do something.
Trump has succeeded in VERY "mature" businesses. There's not a lot of "new" in such businesses, so your competition is just as well schooled as you are. Mistakes and misjudgments are ruthlessly exploited to ones own detriment.
So the short answer, by virtue of my personal estimations, and the easy way Trump has slipped into very convincing "conservative" thought processes (while still retaining enough liberal ambiguity to let the star struck cheer him) is that he was "playing the part" before, not now.
This does not mean I believe Trump is "conservative" in the FreeRepublic sense. I don't think he gives a rip about what the underclass does with their "problem" pregnancies. He obviously doesn't see "all" individual liberties as sacrosanct. He just not that much of an ideologue. Nevertheless, I believe he is enough of an ideological "American" to trust his moral compass to do the best for our country. And his seeming ideological "about-face" leads me to believe he has not adopted and internalized the bizarre pastiche of moral imperatives and bureaucratic submissions that characterize ALL professional politicians in our "government" industry. He
Why not? Soros did it, and he's definitely not anything near conservative.
This does not mean I believe Trump is "conservative" in the FreeRepublic sense.
I agree
Nevertheless, I believe he is enough of an ideological "American" to trust his moral compass to do the best for our country.
I hope you're right. If you're not, we're screwed.