Chuck Todd: Trump remade the GOP. How permanent is it?

Analysis: The Iowa caucus entrance poll tells a distinct story about the changes Donald Trump has prompted in the party since he first ran in 2016.

Was Donald Trump buying or leasing the Republican Party when he descended that escalator in 2015?

At the time, many a longtime Republican tried to argue that Trump was no Republican, let alone a conservative. Just about every major figure in the party circa 2015 viewed him as an interloper, certainly not the avatar for what the GOP was then or would become later. 

But eight years later, in the aftermath of Trump’s decisive caucus victory, it’s clear that he is no outsider anymore. He’s no “hijacker” of the GOP; he is the Republican Party. And, to the chagrin of a lot of small-government conservatives in my orbit, he has also redefined the very definition of the word “conservative” in the modern political dictionary.

How Ronald Reagan defined conservative is very different from how Trump defines it. The phrase “limited government” isn’t something Trump thinks much about, unless it has to do with government’s taxing or regulating real estate developers. 

Outside of his own parochial interests of keeping government out of his businesses, Trump is actually an advocate for a big and “strong” government that is interventionist when he decides it should be. It isn’t small government, and it isn’t just “any” government — it’s his way, period.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/chuck-todd-trump-remade-gop-permanent-rcna134172

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