As the old joke goes, the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump have a give-and-take relationship.

Ever since Trump completed his hostile takeover of the GOP nearly eight years ago, Republicans have been called upon to sacrifice one dearly held principle or value after another to appease their mad king’s whims.

Not long ago, a bedrock belief among Republicans was that America had a responsibility to resist both tyranny and terrorism around the globe, a duty to serve as the world’s peacekeeper and guiding light. Now, Republicans are the ones blocking aid to Israel and Ukraine in those two nations’ struggles to resist terrorists and tyrants.

In the process, those same Republicans make it far more likely that American soldiers will have to fight—and die—to restore the peace in those troubled spots.

They have forsaken these causes they once would have considered sacred to placate Trump, who has a strange, seemingly inexplicable fascination with autocrats such as Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and has expressed admiration for the leaders of Hamas who launched a sneak attack on Israel, murdering, raping and kidnapping along the way.

Once upon a time, Republicans also were the greatest champions of law and order.

Now, though, they tie themselves into knots trying to condone, justify and explain Trump’s assaults upon the rule of law. They attempt to minimize his efforts to overturn the results the of 2020 presidential election by summoning an armed mob to attack the Capitol. They excuse his calls to state officials demanding that they alter or manufacture votes so that he could be allowed to retain office.

And they ignore his hoarding of classified documents, including some that compromised U.S. national security and put Americans’ lives in danger, in unsecured circumstances—and his repeated refusal to return them, even when ordered to do so by a court of law.

They do all this because Trump needs them to save him from the consequences of his own actions and decisions—and they fear his wrath if they do not comply with his every self-destructive impulse.

If the Republican Party has a foundational belief, it always has been in the U.S. Constitution. Conservatives see the Constitution as the ultimate safeguard against the bookend threats of unchecked government power and lawlessness. This is the source of their faith in original intent, the belief that the Constitution must be read through the eyes of the document’s drafters and their wishes honored.

Now, Republicans face another test of their belief structure.

Two states, Colorado and Maine, have determined—based on their readings of the 14^th Amendment, which disqualifies those involved in an insurrection from holding federal office—that Trump is not eligible to have his name on primary ballots in their states. Other states may follow.

Trump’s apologists have tried to dismiss these decisions by arguing that the amendment’s language is ambiguous.

It isn’t.

In fact, it is much clearer than the Second Amendment’s verbiage supposedly guaranteeing an individual the right to own semi-automatic weapons, which didn’t even exist at the time of the amendment’s drafting.

Again, Republicans will twist themselves into pretzels trying to please their tantrum-prone leader.

And—again—they will tell themselves that this time will be the last sacrifice of principle they have to make. This time will be enough.

It won’t be.

Much has been written and said about Donald Trump’s colossal narcissism, his all-encompassing self-absorption. Much, if not all, of it is true. Trump is not a man who sees value in anyone else’s needs or desires.

But the focus on his narcissism often overshadows its companion, his nihilism. Because he cares about nothing but himself, he believes nothing else really matters. There are no principles other than self-preservation, self-advancement and self-gratification to which he is devoted.

That’s why it’s always a mistake to think that any time is the last time Trump will demand that someone compromise or sacrifice a personal belief simply to make him happy.

He thinks principles and ideals are for suckers, hostages he can leverage or exploit to get others to do his bidding.

That’s why Republicans will never give enough to appease their leader.

Their relationship with the former president is give and take—and Donald Trump gets to do all the taking.