I think they are doing really well (by their own standards), the job is to destroy the government. They want to get rid of taxes and rules and regulations that prevent them from keeping their money and doing whatever they want.
Trump's platform the first time he ran was practically "what do bumpkins in country diners say the government should do?" Those of us with connections to those kinds of people and places recognized shit like "build the wall!" because we'd been hearing "they ought to just build a wall" for decades from our dumber associates. (though half the time this took the form of "they should just place landmines the whole length of the border" and at least he didn't pick that part up)
This did have the interesting effect of making some of his positions cross-party populist, like his neoliberalism- and free-trade-skepticism. Normal republican voters hate that stuff and will tell you so, as do lots of left-wingers, but both parties (from about 1980 to 2016) loved all of it. He also talked some weirdly leftist talk, a few times, about healthcare, but with no specifics or clear plan, and that wasn't something he ended up taking action on. Same reason, though: Republicans have been told to hate "Obamacare", so they do, but lots of them also hate our existing healthcare system and insurance companies especially. Another gap between the voters and what their own party's officials were delivering, for him to exploit. They'd 100% eat up universal healthcare if a Republican promoted it, it's all in the letter next to the name.
It's why I figured he'd at least get the R nomination, if not win the whole thing, well before most folks considered him anything but a joke candidate.
> Those of us with connections to those kinds of people and places recognized shit like "build the wall!" because we'd been hearing "they ought to just build a wall" for decades from our dumber associates
Those people are not the problem, rather the problem is the people who voted for him who don't have being that dumb as a justification.
