Lindsey Graham, William Barr, and Mike Pompeo, all of whom are smart enough to know better, chose to become Trump sycophants in exchange for what they hope is influence over the decisionmaking process. They believe that more can get done inside the system, regardless of how flawed it is, than outside. As Sarah Palin might say, how’s that workin’ for them?
For Graham, the quid pro quo is a neoconservative foreign policy. His bargain has been a miserable failure. Trump is not, and never will be, a neoconservative. All Graham has received for all of his ostentatious sucking up is some degree of protection from the extreme right in South Carolina.
For Barr, the consideration is movement towards a system that empowers him to burn secular heretics at the stake. He has made some progress, but not much. Once a Trumpian judiciary is firmly in place, his prospects will improve. In the meantime, he has to keep doing thankless clean-up work for his master.
For Pompeo, the short-term payoff is a default to a foreign policy based on traditional American and GOP interests and values; the longer term goal is higher office. On the first, the record is a decided mixed bag, due to Trump’s frequent and unpredictable interventions; as to the second, the future is not yet written.