They also make the mistake of thinking that in order to appeal to conservative voters they have to be conservative. I have more often gotten through to conservatives with socialist economics and anarchist political philosophy than I ever could when I was a liberal trying to sway them on cultural issues and basic welfare.
And after getting through to them they started to come around on the cultural issues too.
It’s because he maintained plausible deniability, no bribes or kompromat necessary. Fact checkers couldn’t definitively say he supported project 25 because he feigned ignorance.