Fealty

I doubt whether the most devoted fidelity would bear strict examination as to the short reposes even the most entire fealty permits itself.

And yet the war has come, full of double-crossing, internecine accusations of lying and incompetence, and a bitter cleavage into factions over the question of how much fealty should be shown to President Trump — and the extent to which Republicans should amplify his false argument that the election in this fast-changing Southern state was stolen from him.

In one recent video, he said the problem posed by a Russian military led by people who demand nothing but blind fealty would need to be dealt with — “or one day the Russian people will solve it themselves.”

I think the central characteristic Trump seems to be looking for in all of the appointees we’ve seen so far is fealty to him.

But [Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington] says there’s a growing sense that what Mr. Trump really wants is unquestioned fealty – and that, he says, is not going to happen.