Why Everyone in Trump's Cabinet is Desperate
Every authoritarian regime in modern history has faced the same problem. The leader needs subordinates to govern. But competent subordinates are dangerous. A competent deputy has options. A competent deputy has leverage. A competent deputy can build their own power base and, if the moment comes, replace the leader entirely.
So the leader does something that looks irrational from the outside but is perfectly logical from the inside. He stops hiring for competence. He hires for desperation.
Political scientists call this negative selection. The term dates back to observations of Hitler’s inner…
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