There are a lot of boomer conservatives fully in the tank for Trump & they defend him even when he does stupid shit. And that makes him dangerous whether this is all some sort of conspiracy or not.

But I think it's more realistic to see that there are a bunch of extremely petty & narcissitic people who are all grasping for power. Many were mad that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-lago many years ago & disliked that he didn't want to climb their social ladder, so they went out of their way to insult him (Obama saying I'm something you'll never be, president), and I think that may have been enough motivation for the ego maniac Trump to want to show them up. And because Trump is not really a part of their cult, they don't have the sort of dirt on him needed for control so TDS is off the charts.

I can't imagine them all pretending to play these roles with the sort of loyalty that would be required otherwise.