A unified theory of ion‐pressure‐gradient‐driven drift wave instabilities and transport is presented, which ties the long‐wavelength trapped‐ion mode to the moderate‐wavelength hydrodynamic mode in toroidal geometry. An analytic dispersion relation that retains ion drift resonances, and keeps the leading‐order contribution from finite Larmor radius effects and parallel compressibility, is derived. Results indicate that the slab and toroidal branches of these instabilities are of comparable importance, and are both strong candidates to explain the observed anomalous ion loss in toroidal fusion devices. However, it is concluded that in the limit of flat‐density profiles characteristic of H‐mode discharges, the stabilizing influence of perpendicular compressibility is insufficient to corroborate an improvement, if any, inionconfinement quality. Mixing‐length expressions for the fluctuation amplitudes and both electron and ion transport coefficients are derived. Results also indicate that the heretofore experimentally observed favorable current scaling of the energy confinement time may saturate in low ion‐collisionality discharges. Finally, it is shown that a population of energetic trapped particles, such as those that may be produced during radio frequency or perpendicular neutral beam heating, can significantly exacerbate the instability. Several suggestions for experiments are made to help in differentiating among various anomalous transport scenarios.