As the Republican primaries have raged on, Sean Davis, co-founder of the conservative publication The Federalist, has raised a provocative yet legitimate question: “If Trump were running to destroy the GOP/conservatism and pave a path to the White House for Hillary, what would he be doing differently?”

In the eyes of many conservatives, including myself, the answer is obvious — absolutely nothing. However, to take it even a step further, there is now overwhelming evidence to suggest that Trump is not, in actuality, running as a protest, anti-establishment candidate, as is depicted by the media. In reality, Trump is running as nothing more than a con man trying to perpetuate liberalism, elect his longtime friend Hillary Clinton and, most importantly, destroy the modern conservative movement.

The first, most glaring characteristic that defines the Trump candidacy is how painfully — almost purposefully — caricatured it is. For years, liberals have painted conservative Republicans as wealthy hypocrites who were also arrogant, rambling, hateful, crazy, nonsensical and contradictory idiots. A quick glance at “Real Time with Bill Maher” or “The Daily Show” with either Jon Stewart or Trevor Noah suggests that that image is alive and well.

So when Trump — a proud serial adulterer who brags about creating his wealth by buying politicians, uses eminent domain to push old ladies out of their homes for his casinos, rambles on about building a wall and making Mexico pay for it and eggs his supporters to “knock the hell” out of protestors with the promise to pay their legal fees — wants to represent American conservatives on the national stage, we have a major problem. 

However, things truly become problematic when Trump actually opens his mouth to talk about anything related to policy. Most of his positions sound ridiculous — they are incomprehensibly awful takes that ostensibly make Trump look and sound like a conservative yet actually just make a mockery of decades-long conservative thought. 

Let’s look at three issues that are central to modern-day conservatism. For one, conservatives believe in a stronger foreign policy in which America plays a key role in the world. What does the born-again conservative Trump say on this topic?  He flirts with the idea of using nuclear weapons against Europe, according to an April 1 Washington Times article. This seemingly resembles the conservative tendency to be strong on foreign policy, but in actuality, Trump’s idea is laugh-inducing, and makes him — and, by extension, conservatives — look absurd and idiotic.

Many conservatives also believe in securing the border and stopping illegal immigration. How does Trump show his “support” for such measures? As mentioned before, he centralizes his focus on building a wall and then having Mexico pay for it through remittance and visa fee blackmail, essentially risking potential economic conflicts between Mexico and the United States.

Finally, conservatives have long defended the pro-life cause and have sought to create and enforce laws against acts such as partial-birth abortion. So what does the one time “very pro-choice” Donald Trump say when asked by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews at a town hall on March 30 whether abortion should be punished? 

“People in certain parts of the Republican Party, and conservative Republicans, would say that ‘yes, they should be punished,’” Trump replied, before continuing to say that he himself believed that “there has to be some form of punishment” for abortion as well. Matthews then followed up — “for the women?” — and Trump quickly responded, “Yeah.”

Trump’s “advocacy” of conservative issues reveals a striking pattern. Specifically, Trump takes an issue that is known to be close to the heart of the conservative movement, and he either uses the language that conservatives typically use on these issues — for example, “we are a country of laws” and people “have to come into our country legally” — or acts as the conservative standard bearer who speaks for the movement, as he did with the abortion question. From there, Trump demonstrates his “true conservative bona fides” to the American public at large and starts adding his incredibly brainless and damaging ideas that few, if any, actual conservatives have ever backed or supported to create his toxic ideological brew. 

The tactic is clever and conniving, and it has already deeply hurt the conservative cause. On the issue of border security, for example, a March 31 article in The Federalist reports that a Pew Research poll found that “in September of 2015, 46 percent of those polled said they favored building a fence along America’s southern border with Mexico. But in its latest poll, Pew found that support had fallen significantly, with only 38 percent favoring a border fence. When the question was reframed to ask about a border wall as opposed to a border fence, only 34 percent said they would favor building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.” 

Since Trump’s ascendency onto the national political stage, conservative policy positions — to which Trumpism is parasitically linked — have become drastically more unpopular. Indeed, there is little doubt that other conservative issues upon which Trump has wreaked havoc with his outrageous remarks will face a similar fate. The end results are an inevitable Republican loss in the general election if Trump is the GOP nominee and an inevitable end to the viability of conservatism, which would be irrevocably polluted by the scourge that is Donald Trump. When looking at who Trump actually is, this makes sense. Trump is no conservative — not even close. 

Looking even beyond his lengthy, extensive embrace of liberal Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and his past ideological support for very liberal stances on abortion, healthcare, taxes and other matters, Trump has regularly exposed himself as a fraud on the campaign trail.

When Trump is not busy desperately keeping up the conservative charade, he brags about there being “two Donald Trumps” before quickly reversing himself to save face. In town halls, he tells people that he believes the government’s three main roles are “security for our nation. I would also say health care, I would also say education.” In reactionary temper tantrums toward people like Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), who recently chose to endorse Ted Cruz, Trump angrily tried to character-assassinate Walker, slamming him and his tenure as governor for not raising taxes and claiming that “Wisconsin’s not doing well” — usually a criticism made by more liberal politicians.

Ask yourself: Is this the behavior of a once-liberal who changed his mind to become a conservative or a con artist? Can a man who tosses around Freudian slips about his love for government-run healthcare and government-run education and his hatred of tax cuts, who parrots false liberal talking points against conservative leaders like Governor Walker and who sabotages conservatism at every corner really be viewed as a conservative? Or is he who many anti-Trump conservatives always thought he was — someone who has a vested interest both personally and ideologically in helping his longtime friend, the unlikeable Hillary Clinton, win this November? 

As of now, there is no smoking gun that Trump is consciously conspiring with Democrats against the GOP and the conservative movement. But as more stories are produced about Trump and his destructive campaign, it becomes harder, at least in my eyes, to view Donald Trump as anything other than a cancer purposefully planted to destroy the GOP and the conservative movement as we know it.