despotic government grows from corrupt civil society. they all say they gonna make it great again. they all proclaim they rule a democratic state. 
commodus erected himself in statues of hercules. the final trump made monstrous towers as cold and hideous as his own death mask.
after commodus was strangled in his bath rome had 5 emperors in one year. and still the towering empire continued to fall precipitously, obliterating everything in it's toxic wake.