Firing civil servants and dismantling government departments is how aspiring strongmen consolidate personal power – lessons from around the globe

A leader bent on expanding his own power would see the government's bureaucracy as a key target. Andry Djumantara - iStock/Getty Images Plus

With the recent confirmations of Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – two of the most controversial of President Donald Trump’s high-level administration nominees – the president’s attempt to remake government as a home for political loyalists continues.

Soon after coming to office for a second term, Trump aggressively sought to overhaul Washington and bring the federal government in line with his political agenda. He is spearheading an effort to purge the government’s ranks of people he perceived as his opponents and slash the size of long-standing bureaucratic agencies – in some instances dismantling them entirely.