I suspect one of the reasons for Trump's popularity is apparent disdain for detail and specifics. His opponents on the GOP side and most informed pundits assumed that this will do him in in the end. The public, they reasoned, will eventually see that he has no plans only rhetoric and defect to a more solid wonkish establishment type like Rubio. This is a miscalculation.
The public isn't interested in detail for several reasons. First thinking though complexity is hard and simple sound bytes are easier to take in. Second, detail and nuance are less clear cut and thus less conformable than bright lines (like good and evil - as in "the Axis of..."). Third, when you don't like to think too hard, having someone as self-professedly-self-evidently as successful as Trump validate your choice to ignore the hard to remember / hard to think about stuff is very affirming; and the better you feel about yourself the more you approve of the person who made you feel that way. And finally, complex policy and wonkish debate is what Washington is all about, and Washington has hardly covered itself in glory these last 6 years. And as people are fed up with Congress, so too they have had enough of establishment politicians lying and playing political games while the country burns (or so says The Donald).
What voters, particularly on the GOP side, seem to want are some simple prescriptions from someone who doesn't confuse them with detail. And that's why Trump will be the GOP's candidate.
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