Things like support for the military/vets, small government, fiscal responsibility, etc. were things that were paid lip service for decades. Maybe some in the party (meaning politicians/party operatives, not voters) really believed in these things, and certainly the lip service helped secure support of R voters who belive in those things and needed that verneer to justify ignoring the other aspects of the party. So we all have this idea that it's going to hurt Trump to bash the troops and blow up the deficit because for decades that's been what the GOP claims to care about.
But for his base, for the people who actually vote for Trump? Those things have apparently never been more than a fashion accessory. A thing to identify you as a member of the right team. Their real motivations have been, for as long as I've been paying attention, exactly what we see on display so overtly these days - xenophobia, racism, religion (of a very specific variety), authoritarianism, and hate.
That may be why Trump doesn't seem to me to be much of a departure from the GOP of the past - those were always my fundamental issues with the GOP. The other stuff? They were never really distinguishing factors anyway. It was never true that liberals didn't support the military/vets. It was never true that we want big government (we want functional government), etc. These were never controversial to me, they were just things the right would lie about to maintain that verneer and pull in R voters who actually care about those things. They never seemed like actual differences between us, so their loss of prominence doesn't matter much to my perception.
I'm sure it seems vastly different if you (the general you, not a specific person) were one of those rational R voters who focused on those "traditional" R values of economics and support for vets, and assumed they were core party values, that the other stuff was just noise or unfounded accusations by us uncivil, mean liberals. To you, abandoning those principles is antithetical to the R core; but that's only because you yourself are rational and not a shitty person. You, unfortunately, don't represent a controlling majority of the party. As it turns out, the actual party base is what we've been saying it is for decades.
Bashing vets won't hurt him because his supporters are no longer required to put on the sherade. Trump gives them what they really want - what I've always seen them to want - without asking them to pretend to care about anything else. They don't have to be "pc" anymore. They can "tell it like it is".
Those who still care about cuck nerd stuff? Like respect for the troops and the office of the president? Like democratic institutions, economic responsibility, and the constitution? You've lost your party, if you ever had it in the first place, and that's terrible for all of us.