Then again, what mainly unites the leaders of the new dictators’ club is the shared perception that they stand to lose very little in working against a country they detest and a president they contemn.

For instance, the medical team that initially saw Mr. Duncan did not share information about his past in Liberia, and it took days for a potentially contemned apartment to be cleaned.

The King does not believe that I would contemn his commands--in his heart he does not, I am sure!

As Æneas says, “Capistrano had despised the pomps of the world, he had fled from its delights, he had trampled down avarice, he had overcome lust, but he could not contemn glory.”

Clarendon complained that the Prince "too affectedly" despised what was said of him, and "too stoically contemned the affections of men."