Oh, and as to the "nuclear weapons" thing, I've conjectured that Trump likely said something along the lines of "If we're not going to use them, why do we have them?".
But I don't think he was advocating their use. I think he was questioning the spend, as in "Why did we bother spending billions on weapons we're never going to use?"
What frightened the DC establishment most was Palin's history of rooting out and punishing corruption in her own party when she became governor. That they felt so much at risk says a lot about them. Will Trump do the same?