I mean, it might well by the end he was been pretty aged in his mind and was being used or fooled or had lost the plot : his comments about Ukraine were staggering, appalling aberrations you never want to hear from someone with considerable public stature in any country.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/04/the-similarities...
He revealed the flaw of the democratic process in that it relies on people who are inherently honest and not there merely to further their goals of power and influence.
A negative force with significant power and influence can effectively become untouchable by law, since they can corrupt the processes which are used to control such behaviour, and use their media influence to whitewash their image.
We saw time and time again a familiar pattern: Berlusconi convicted of a serious crime, only to be acquitted on appeal, then years-later further charges of witness tampering being brought raising questions of a corrupted appeals process.