One technique commonly used by despots is to usurp their opponents. Tie them to you, destroy their credibility with anyone else, and make them completely dependent on you, and they can’t betray you. Where else would they go?

Credibility is the hardest asset to build, and the easiest to break.

The White House Press Secretary position, for example, depends on credibility. I’m not saying press conferences always include the full truth. Still, the point is to say stuff that people will believe. The press and the world need to trust the spokesperson at some level. If the Press Secretary doesn’t have a pretty high level of trust, their value drops significantly.

Trump doesn’t care. He pushed Sean Spicer out into his very first press conference to chastise the press for reporting that Trump’s inauguration crowds weren’t bigger than Obama’s. Most papers had already published the photographic evidence showing Trump’s claim was a lie. Trump made Spicer stand there and spout that lie that wasn’t just obvious, it was stupid. It crippled Spicer in his role, crushed his political standing, and diminished his long-term value to Trump.

Whether Trump did that out of calculation or just his own personal desperation, the result is that Spicer has effectively been ruined. He has no credibility, and survives in whatever position he has only because of Trump’s largess. He can’t leave now. Who in the press communications field would hire a known liar?

Trump sends Kellyanne Conway out to lie for him every day. Ms Conway seems to do this willingly and with delighted malice, but the result is the same: she’s lost all trust, and would have little value outside a Trump administration. With her press credibility laughably low, they’re sending Stephen Miller in her place, and he’s sinking even faster.

Now we knew that Trump sent Vice President Pence to publicly insist that Mike Flynn hadn’t done what the White House already knew he had. Like before, it’s hard to know if Trump simply couldn’t restrain himself, but the result is to damage Pence and make him more dependent on Trump.

I’m not defending these people. They chose to follow Trump, knowing exactly what kind of miserable bully he was. Conway and Miller seem to actually relish their public humiliation. I’m not saying I feel badly for any of them.

I’m only saying that Trump is exactly the kind of despot who routinely ruins the lives of his supporters for his own personal and emotional comfort.