For what it's worth, obviously he always had Tillerson tagged for SecState, just needed to pretend that there were deep deliberations and it gave him a chance to humiliate Romney. For anyone who thinks this shows brilliance, no it doesn't. Vince and Linda McMahon's scriptwriters could have easily devised it*.
As far as what to expect I think that Putin is the obvious model. While he's done nothing to improve the lives of average Russians he's able to keep enough on board through quasi-religious ethno-nationalism that it remains close enough for him to credibly steal each election.
Of course Russia is in a demographic death spiral. No matter how hard Putin and his priests in funny hats try to convince the Good People that they need to practice the slavic equivalent of lebensborn it isn't taking hold because nobody wants to bring children into an oligarchic ####hole. BTW, doesn't really matter as long as the game keeps going long enough for Putin & Co. to ransack the last $B out.
*on the other hand, in Trumpamerica anything that has made a $B shows who has great worth. In the world of monied thugs, the cash count is all that matters.
