He's taken the journey of the vast majority of the old conservative intelligentsia.
The current lot are intellectually incoherent. I know. I know. They hate not to be respected for their genius. But if you talk nonsense, and run the republic the way Trump does, then you will lose your democracy soon enough and no one is going to say you are smart for doing so.
It's already clear that the US has lost its leadership of the free world. And while America First people will say, who cares, there are long run consequences. When will folks abandon the dollar, for instance? What will happen to the US as a financial centre? Will the world apply carbon taxes to a US which encourages coal mining while everyone else wants to save the planet?