Ruth Ben-Ghiat

They care about self-preservation.

Inevitably, they get more paranoid the longer they're in power because more people hate them, the election might go badly, people do crazy things to try and get rid of them as we've seen.

So they have safe spaces.

And so these are people who are driven by fear.

And you really can't overestimate the fact of fear.

And it's why they puff themselves up with personality cults.

I am omnipotent.

I am infallible.

And they're telling themselves this.

So it was a recent Trump speech.

And I don't remember the content, but I wrote on social media that he was self-soothing.

It was like he was telling himself, as you say, he has no filter, that he was great, that everything was going to plan, even though that's not at all the case.

And it could have been domestic.

It could have been about the economy or Iran.

Who knows?

But it was about him propping himself up.

And then they create these inner sanctums, the cabinet officials who are sycophants.

And so we've seen the ritual of when the officials meet.

It's not to give him objective feedback that he desperately needs.

And they all do this, Putin, and they all have their inner sanctums.