When it briefly looked like there was a window to dethrone Trump in the 2024 primary, Ron DeSantis picked up where Cruz left off, seizing upon Trump’s non-conservative actions in office, from Covid lockdowns to rising spending. Our polling briefly showed DeSantis leading among the most ideologically consistent voters, as defined by their views on individual policy questions. But a much larger group of voters were the 40 percent who called themselves “very conservative”—regardless of their views on individual policy questions—and among these voters, Trump dominated.

Trump almost never labeled himself as a conservative, but he understood at a basic political level that “conservatism” was really a form of ultra-patriotic, anti-Left identity more than a litany of consistent policy positions. 

This seems not to be the "promise and fail to deliver" conservatism of the past (and the past includes Trump I to some extent).