“The people who are flattering have agendas of their own,” Brands explained. “And Bannon has his own agenda. I mean, everybody makes use of everybody else. So Trump is using Bannon, and Bannon is using Trump. The only thing about Trump is most presidents know what it is they’re trying to get out of a relationship—as in, they want support for this particular bill, that particular initiative in foreign policy. With Trump, at least it seems that all he wants is praise, simply for the sake of praise, rather than for some other goal.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/06/donald-trump-loyalty-staff-217227
From the above:
“The people who are flattering have agendas of their own,” Brands explained. “And Bannon has his own agenda. I mean, everybody makes use of everybody else. So Trump is using Bannon, and Bannon is using Trump. The only thing about Trump is most presidents know what it is they’re trying to get out of a relationship—as in, they want support for this particular bill, that particular initiative in foreign policy. With Trump, at least it seems that all he wants is praise, simply for the sake of praise, rather than for some other goal.”