It seems that there was a mystical unicorn version of Donald Trump that GOP leaders were hoping would emerge------the so called "presidential" Trump----
I have a feeling they really didn't get what he actually IS. It's kind of hard to wrap your mind around the real nature of his kind of narcissism unless you've seen it. Now that they're seeing it.....
I think they've set themselves up for this. I think a lot of the power running the party (not necessarily the general membership) has been using fear to subtly manipulate for years. (There's a great book on this called "Dog Whistle Politics".) They had their membership primed to fear immigrants etc, then Trump came along and out played them at their own game. They assumed they could get him on board and now they're finding out they're dealing with a whole different kind of critter.
I think the Democrats lie too. Obviously, since we now have copies of emails showing the primaries were actually kind of "rigged".
And, I suspect that most people who want to run for president score kind of high on the narc/psychopath scale. That wouldn't surprise me, considering about that it takes to do the job. I don't know that having a personality disorder, or some other mental health issue, should necessarily disqualify you from running for president (or anything else). It depends on how it affects you and how you function in the world. The problem with Trump's brand of narcissism is he tends towards wildly out of control temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. He really BELIEVES he should always get his way and seems to find it infuriating when he doesn't. If he was a bit more tactical, and I thought he had an actual plan or vision beyond "wanting to win", I might be willing to vote of for him. But I don't think he has a plan beyond wanting to win and deeply believing he can fix stuff just by wanting it fixed.
The best example I can think of in recent years is Richard Nixon. He wasn't a horribly bad president. He may have been a horribly bad person. He was definitely some kind of nuts. But, he was capable of running the country, in his own, not very ethical way. He's not the kind of person I'd WANT running the country, but at least I don't think he was the type to get us into WWIII just because he was PO'd. He was also, though, kind of dangerous at home. He was willing and ready to use things like the FBI and the IRS to go after people he was mad at. And THEY were willing to do his bidding. (A separate problem, but a problem) I think Clinton is kind of like Nixon. Not more first choice, someone you need to watch, but probably not going to run us completely off the rails. I don't see many original ideas, I don't see much potential to make the world a really better place, but I see the potential for the country to survive her term. Trump? Anything could happen.
BTW, they didn't expect Lincoln to win either. So, vote your conscious, vote for someone you'd actually like to see win. (If you can find such a person.) :D