A new psychological study has found that people who report favorable views of Donald Trump also tend to score higher on measures of callousness, manipulation, and other malevolent traits—and lower on empathy and compassion. The findings, based on two large surveys of U.S. adults, shed light on how personality traits relate to political beliefs, including support for Trump and conservative ideology. The research was recently published in the Journal of Research in Personality.
I think it’s because both are happening, they’re just coming from different sources. The authoritarian goals are managed by the oligarchs and channeled through the (easily manipulated) narcissist in Chief, while the petty vindictiveness stems directly from him.