Independents include many factions.
Including the hard core nationalists who wanted the border controlled and who provided enough votes to overcome Hillary’s vote manufacturing machine while at the same time replacing the votes of the Neocons...who stayed home or voted for Hillary in 2016.
Making statements about all independents is as informed and honest as making theological statements about all protestants.
It’s a very informed statement. There are always 40% who will vote Republican/conservative and 40% who will vote Democrat/liberal. The 20% in the middle blow with the wind. Trump did a great job appealing to that 20% by NOT appealing to that 20%. He stayed true to his core principles and they came on board.
It reminds me of an old baseball analogy: Everybody will win 60 games and lose 60 games. It’s what you do with the other 42 games that matters.