When I was blindsided by the news earlier today that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was set to be fired from his post in the Trump White House, later to be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo, I was startled, but not surprised. After all, Tillerson is just one of many Trump proxies that have resigned since the President took office in January of last year. However, he’s certainly one of the highest profiles instances.

When I checked my Twitter feed later today and saw the news drop of the firing of National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster seconds before my login, I was actually shocked.

The disruption at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has reached astronomical levels.

Aside from Tillerson, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly are the other Trump Cabinet-level officials to leave their original posts (Kelly moving to the position of White House Chief of Staff after the previous chief, Reince Priebus, resigned). Additionally, myriad others have either resigned or been forced out of their appointed positions in the Trump administration, including McMaster and the man he replaced (Mike Flynn), Communications Director Hope Hicks, Chief Economics Advisor Gary Cohn, and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

According to one report, the level of turnover in the Trump White House is unprecedented, with 43% of top aides having their tenures end in firing, resignation, or movement to a different position. That figure is more than double the rate under President Reagan, and more than triple what it was under President Obama.

What’s more, Trump seems to be quite content with not even filling certain appointment positions to begin with. In a stunning admission in February 2017 to Fox News, Trump stated that, “A lot of those jobs I don’t want to appoint, because they’re unnecessary to have…You don’t need all those jobs”. And that’s exactly what has happened. As of January 2018, there remains some 240 jobs that require Senate approval that Trump has not even named nominees for.

So, what to make of all of this?

It’s really not too alien to the way that it’s been alleged that Trump has conducted his private business for years.

Trump is all about Trump.

And so, to ensure that he’s never not the center of attention, he creates a system of chaos and disruption around him that disallows anyone else from nabbing the limelight. After all, how can anyone supplant you if they might be replaced at any moment?

And while I’m all for cutting government glut, some of these roles are incredibly vital. Even if they weren’t, there must be a better organized, better thought out way of curbing spending than by merely not filling positions.

Thus, it should be little surprise that this somewhat totalitarian tactic is generating little good for the American people. It seems that President Trump is often purging those from his administration that he sees as disloyal or deviating too far outside the norm. Such was Tillerson’s sin when he apparently disagreed with Trump on the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal and the potential peace talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe that a president should have a support team that he aligns with. Such is why cabinets roll over from administration to administration. President Clinton’s philosophy is different from President Bush’s is different from President Obama’s, and thus keeping the same bureaucrats from cycle to cycle would be disastrous.

But exiling people simply because they don’t kowtow to your every will and wish isn’t the mark of a good leader. That’s the strength of an absolute monarch. There should be some alignment, but some dissonance as well. How else is one supposed to consider all sides of an argument? Not that Trump really seems to be the type to consider all sides of an argument.

While I’m sure none of this is exactly shocking news to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for nigh on the past three years, it doesn’t bode well for the long-term political prospects of the right or for America in general. Absolutism is nobody’s friend, and in these ever-darkening times, it is less so than ever before.