Aristocracy and Hostage Capital

What immediately came up for me is MAGA political capital and trust.

The Orange-utan typically requires his newly-onboarded minions to do something odious or seemingly hypocritical, in contradiction to either regular moral sense or their own stated scruples, such that without his sponsorship, they would have no hope of being taken seriously. Their political capital becomes hostage capital.

Sometimes it's something small, like RFKjr's famous cheeseburger shot on AF1. But usually it's election denialism.

The other guy who famously did this to his associates is of course Epstein.

Funny how they seem to be running the same playbook! Almost like they knew each other real well