Is Diego Brando (Original verse) a Machiavellian?

Machiavellianism is a personality trait defined by cunning, manipulation, and a cynical disregard for morality, focused on achieving power and self-interest through deceit and strategic exploitation of others

I’ve recently been thinking about characters in media that fit the term of a Machiavellian and one that came to mind was Diego Brando - specifically the original one with Scary Monsters

If you take Machiavellian to mean someone’s who’s strategic and mostly self interested - I feel like Diego meets that criteria.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve read Steel Ball Run - around 6 years or so, but from what I remember Diego was almost entirely driven by his own self ambition. When he forms alliances with Johnny/Hot Pants it was only out of the utility it provided him, only using them to maximise his chance of ‘winning’.

He was also a fairly pragmatic character, very good at reading people iirc. Being able to stay one step ahead of rivals through his social intelligence.

However, I think some people may also point out that he was arrogant and impulsive at times which isn’t a characteristic of a Machiavellian as they aren’t afraid to be undermined if it means that it’s another step into reaching their goals. Diego ultimately got killed due to his need to prove his superiority.

I’m not sure whether he fits the characteristic of a Machiavellian, though am I leaning pretty heavily towards it, what do you guys think?