Terms like idiocracy and kakistocracy fail to account for the malevolent intent of Trump & co. Focusing on their "incompetence" similarly misses the point.

Pathocracy, the rule of people without conscience -- psychopaths and their ilk, aka human predators -- is the term to use.

When the fox in charge of the hen house kills all the chicken inside, we don't decry (repeatedly!) its incompetence. That's what foxes do, after all. Such is their predatory nature.

And so it is with psychopaths in charge of governments. They destroy and kill, as predators do.

But while foxes do what they do because they know no other way, psychopaths know, intellectually at least, right from wrong. They choose wrong as it serves their interests.