As an aside, sometime down the road when historians have a complete picture and distance from the issues, I would not be surprised to see Trump categorized as the beginning of something all together different. Not removed from the GOP, but some sort of offspring that led (leads?) to its own brand of Republicanism.
I can see a future historian writing something like the following:
"The conservative backlash that gained electoral dominance with Ronald Reagan in 1980 saw numerous electoral victories at the Federal level in the late 20th century. It culminated with George W. Bush's highly controversial election in 2000 (and narrow reelection in 2004) and the implementation of a deeply conservative agenda powered by christian evangelists and so-called Neo-Cons. With the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, the Republican Party's evolution took a dramatic turn. While still supported by a similar electorate that powered George W Bush to victory, the philosophy of the party had changed dramatically. At Trump's 2016 inauguration, even Bush (just 8 years removed from his own Presidency) remarked "That was some strange shit" when he heard Trump's depiction of "American carnage". Through constant scandals, accusations of supporting Russian interference in elections, impeachment, and attacks on previously sacrosanct individuals and institutions, the Republican Party from 2016 to ???? morphed into something that previous Republican Presidents would not have expected. Less a party of small government individualism, the Republican Party of this era grew into a party of militant anti-government, anti-liberal extremism. While earlier Republican administrations had push forward a conservative agenda, the very definition of conservative was changed to promote the desired short-term outcomes, and less that of a larger ideology. Thus, this represents a fundamental realignment of the party itself. While it is irresponsible and impossible to completely divorce the Republican Party of 2004 (Bush's second inauguration) with that of 2016, the world views of both its leaders and electorate are sufficiently different to be considered distinct from one another. Fundamental views on the role and authority of the Executive Branch that were unthinkable in 2004 were thrown away in 2016 and replaced with a grandiose vision of the Executive Branch, a view that was solely intended for a Republican Administration."