He said extreme things, after all, like calling illegal aliens rapists and drug smugglers. They were so used to living in their bubble that they didn't realize that average Americans in flyover country actually appreciated straight talk.
They were just sure the GOP would nominate another professional politician in a nice suit with a nice head of hair like Romney ver. 2.0 whom they could easily take down. And Trump (billionaire, nice suit, nice hair) seemed like such an easy target because he said extreme things as well.
Yea, I remember that well. And you likely remember that most of us were Cruz fans prior to Trump and then hearing of Trump, we thought “Oh great, just what we need, an egomaniac when we already have 16 candidates.”
...and then he came down the escalator and made the speech.
It was never about Trump, it was about what he stood for.