Such is Trump. What of his underlings? His Cabinet officials are, after all, by and large Republican normal—some very good, some mediocre, some simply odd. All of his political subordinates either know or will discover that the corruption of power works not by making you do or say outrageous things (at first), but rather by inducing you to persistently shade the truth. They will, for example, find themselves pretending that we have a coherent policy toward Europe when we do not. They will excuse an unhealthy and possibly sinister relationship with Vladimir Putin as an exercise in realpolitik.
They will tell themselves that they have gone to work for the man because they think they can affect him; they will learn—or more likely, their friends and associates on the outside will observe—that actually, he is affecting them. Very few will resign in outrage, because the compromises to their integrity will creep up on them. As Sir Thomas More puts it in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, they will be like the man who, having taken an oath, is “holding his own self in his own hands, like water” and when he opens his fingers, “needn’t hope to find himself again.” They will try to open their fingers just a little bit, and it will not work: the water will cascade out. Many of them will never find themselves again, but will instead spend the rest of their careers making excuses for things that once upon a time they understood were inexcusable.
There will be exceptions: military men mostly, I suspect. Jim Mattis and John Kelly have seen the worst and the finest in human nature; contact with the likes of Trump will not defile them. Then again, there is General Flynn, the fine intelligence officer whose life in politics caused him to lead hysterical chants of “Lock her up!” There may be younger people who come through cleanly, mostly in corners of the government where they can avoid the pitch that will stick to others higher up. And no doubt, there will indeed be selfless patriots simply stepping up to the plate who swallow their disgust for a time but feel its sour taste and do not let it dissipate.
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