“We’re not allowed to negotiate drug prices, can you believe it?” Trump said. Noting that Woody Johnson, of the Johnson & Johnson family, is a big Jeb Bush fundraiser, Trump asked, “Do you think Jeb Bush is going to make drug prices competitive?” Everyone knew the answer. Trump went on to accuse the insurance industry of buying laws that suppress competition and keep prices high, and the oil companies of doing something similar.

On defense, in a race in which all of his Republican rivals favor increasing military spending, Trump promised instead to go after waste and profiteering in the defense industry. “I hear stories, like they’re ordering missiles they don’t want because of politics, because of special interests,” Trump said. “Because the company that makes the missiles is a contributor.” There is so much of that kind of corruption in the Pentagon, Trump said, that he will be able to build up the military without actually spending more, just by putting an end to wasteful and corrupt practices…

The man leading the Republican race is doing so on a platform that would blow up the Republican Party as it now exists in Washington. If Trump is bringing new voters into the party, he’s doing it by promising to make the party virtually unrecognizable to its members today. If he were elected president and did what he says he will do — and many, if not most, political insiders cannot get their heads around even that possibility — Trump would be an astonishingly disruptive force in Washington. Of course, that is exactly what his voters want.