I think his effect is much more insidious than people realize. Trump has given war mongers and corrupt businessmen a road map - don't apologize. Our discourse politic may truly never be the same. And how long will it take for someone worse to come into power? It's inevitable, isn't it? Part of me... a dark part... actually wants Trump to win big. Why? Because this stuff needs to be tried and failed. Otherwise, we're just gonna give it another go, aren't we? Conservatives have to learn a lesson that tax cuts do add to the deficit, that soft power does work; otherwise, they'll keep this crazy town stuff up.
Imagine if there is a blue wave in November, and Trump is right (cause he probably is) that the stock market will negatively react. They've built themselves up with 2 years of expectations, and when this house of cards falls, do you really think that the people will blame Trump? No way.. people will be out of work, poverty will rise, suicides will rise, and Republicans are going to scream at the top of their lungs, "See! Democrats don't know how to manage the economy. We told you so!!" And how long will that perception last? How do we know that this won't set up Republicans to be "great on the economy" for another 2 decades? And during that time, all the research we'll miss out on, and all these civil liberties rolled back, not to mention giving big business even more control over the government... which could, honest to God, be the dagger that does kill our democracy many many years down the road. Trump may be the death of this nation, long after he's left office.