Drift modes in toroidal geometry are destabilized by trapped electron inverse dissipation and evolve to a nonlinearly saturated state. Using renormalized one‐point turbulence theory for the nonlinear gyrokinetic equation in the ballooning representation, it is shown that ion Compton scattering is an effective saturation mechanism. Ion Compton scattering transfers wave energy from short to long perpendicular wavelength, where it is absorbed by ion resonance with extended, linearly stable, long‐wavelength modes. The fluctuation spectrum and fluctuation levels are calculated using the condition of nonlinear saturation. Transport coefficients and energy confinement time scalings are determined for several regimes. Specifically, the predicted confinement time density scaling for an Ohmically heated discharge increases fromn3/8in the collisionless regime ton9/8in the dissipative trapped electron regime.