However, the stuff he could have done with Exec Orders or agency rules, is stuff that can be reversed rather easily by a Dem POTUS. His base wants laws, regs, and rules to help them, that cannot be overturned as easily as Trump has overturned Obama's legacy of Exec Orders and agency rule changes. That is why he has done things the way he has.
Final agency rules aren't actually that easy to overturn. As for the broader point, yes laws are better than executive action but when laws can't be passed you work with what you have. You also use those tools to compel action.
Trump ending DACA via executive order, proposing an immigration package that includes funding for his border wall, a method to permanent residency for DACA individuals (that specifically bars them from ever becoming US citizens), and a broader overhaul of the immigration fixes (that is slanted towards the Republican positions), and then telling everyone publicly that the executive branch will be prioritizing DACA deportations over everything but felony criminal conviction deportations starting six months from that date, and that he will veto any immigration package that doesn't include his requests; would focus minds greatly.
The Republicans would have, and could have before 2018, attempted to ram it through with all Republican votes. If the Democrats refuse then the Republicans get to blame them for the DACA deportations (afterall, the Republicans voted for legal permanent residency for them) and if they help it pass then Trump (and the Republicans) get to trumpet how they are actually solving the problem.
His base want different things from him, in terms of substance and action, than what DC insiders think is the 'proper' way to handle these things.
No, what his base wanted from him was Federalist Society judges, to not go weak on abortion, to not start any foreign wars (and end the ones we were already in), to stand up to China, and to go to war with the DC bureaucracy and system.
His personality and antics are simply a price that the base is willing to accept in exchange for getting their policy priorities. Can you name
anyone who disagrees with Trump on a policy level but votes for him simply because they like his personality?
Because I can name a number of people who voted
against Trump despite agreeing with him on policy simply because they can't stand how he behaves.
Politically speaking, his personality is a straight negative. The only value it has is that it makes it easier for him to "trigger da libs", causing them to overreact and overcompensate, and in turn driving people away from the Dems (and to Trump by default). That is largely mitigating a negative, not being a net positive, though.
At the end of the day we have to compare Trump with all of his faults and compare him to the authoritarian mess the democrats have turned into.
2020 is going to be an election where we have to choose the lesser of two evils.
Why do you think that I voted for him in 2016, will vote for him come November, and am supporting
no Democrats in 2020?
It's not because I
like Trump, it is entirely because of what the Democrats are up to. Well that and liking Trump's judicial picks (although any Republican would have essentially the same picks).