“to assume Trump will be the leader throughout is silly.”
Optimistic, perhaps. Something that few conservatives have felt for decades. If Trump is not elected President, nothing will change. Everyone else, excepting Cruz, are members of the Uniparty.
And if President Trump can’t effect any change at all, then this country is done for real. Only a catastrophe of Biblical proportions would alter this country’s slide into Fabian socialism and worse. In 10 years, this country will be where Europe is: overrun by 3rd world peasants, criminals and gangs of every ethnic and religious stripe conceivable.
Trump is not a conservative, he is a populist protectionist masquerading as a conservative when it is convenient for him.