for finding and using people who are weak. Graham was always the remora attached to some shark, feeding off the shark's scraps, because he didn't have what it took to be a shark himself. For a long time John McCain was his shark. McCain was mostly respected and admired, and Graham fed off being his friend. After McCain died the remora had no shark until Trump, recognizing what Graham needed, invited him to play golf, and it wasn't long afterwards that Graham had a new shark to attach himself to. Trump finds people who value power and influence above everything; politics attracts such people. They are probably the majority.
During Trump's first term, James Comey wrote an opinion piece for the NYT that also recognized exactly what Trump does (yeah, I know, Comey, eww, we hate him, blah blah blah; and for the purposes of this discussion I don't care and I don't want to hear about it). He was writing about Bill Barr at the time, but his remarks apply equally, maybe even more, to Graham and a whole lot of other people.
Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them. Sometimes what they reveal is inspiring. For example, James Mattis, the former secretary of defense, resigned over principle, a concept so alien to Mr. Trump that it took days for the president to realize what had happened, before he could start lying about the man.
But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites. ....
You can’t say this out loud — maybe not even to your family — but in a time of emergency, with the nation led by a deeply unethical person, this will be your contribution, your personal sacrifice for America. You are smarter than Donald Trump, and you are playing a long game for your country, so you can pull it off where lesser leaders have failed and gotten fired by tweet.
Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values. And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xlA.mn1G.6nvZc1AvD7O8&smid=url-share
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