(deleted old comment cuz i was rambling)

Maybe I'm reading into this too much but it sounds like the TL is playing a political game. I had a TL that did the same stuff. You have to kiss the right ass and play the game. If you don't want to play then either leave, or try to change the rules. And I mean a REAL plan on how to get power over your TL. Maybe talking to your manager will be enough, but as you say he is a stupid asshole. So who knows.

zoom session to walk over the code changes and after that he said looks good, he would approve it but no action at all

For example this can be part of your plan: record all zoom calls from now on. Do NOT use the Zoom feature (it notifies everyone), use an external screen recorder.