# Does President Trump use private "goon squads"? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 15, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210 "2017-03-15T01:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Goosie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@Goosie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goosie)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/1 "2017-03-15T01:56:08Z")
Does President Trump use private “goon squads” to deal with people who displease him somehow? Could he become America’s “Papa Doc”? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/2 "2017-03-15T03:23:29Z")
If he doesn’t, I’m sure that his supporters would like to see him do so, given the frequency with which they’re always complaining about Soros’s “paid thugs”. Our rightie friends are real big on projection. There is also the fact that the woman who had the recent confrontation with Sean Spicer reported getting death threats. And the fact that one trumper showed up at Berkeley with his own “riot gear”. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/3 "2017-03-15T03:54:10Z")
More of a short rant, really. Off to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/4 "2017-03-15T04:00:22Z")
Hey, he should get them to wear black shirts! Then he could call them the “Blackshirts.” ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/5 "2017-03-15T04:41:49Z")
He did offer to pay the legal bills for anyone who assaulted a protester at his campaign rallies so why not? I’d advise them to get their pay up front though and never put the Chinese knockoff black shirts in the washer with any other clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/6 "2017-03-15T07:09:17Z")
When twitter seems too impersonal, Trump prefers the hands-on touch you only get with hired goons. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/7 "2017-03-15T07:49:52Z")
> [@Goosie](#): > > Does President Trump use private “goon squads” to deal with people who displease him somehow? Do you have any evidence that he does? Or are you just inventing something? ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/8 "2017-03-15T09:11:18Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > When twitter seems too impersonal, Trump prefers the hands-on touch you only get with hired goons. Hired goons? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/9 "2017-03-15T10:17:58Z")
The fact is that no, President Trump does not use goon squads. Just another liberal wet dream. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/10 "2017-03-15T11:12:20Z")
Indeed he does. You will be contacted shortly. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/11 "2017-03-15T11:48:09Z")
nm, troll feeding ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/12 "2017-03-15T12:27:36Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Do you have any evidence that he does? Or are you just inventing something? Looks like the OP is ‘just’ askin’ questions. Questions to which the answers are, presumably, ‘no’. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/13 "2017-03-15T13:04:33Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The fact is that no, President Trump does not use goon squads. Does he pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/14 "2017-03-15T13:22:10Z")
Why is this even a question? Are we running low on existing fuckery to deal with when it comes to the orange jackass? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/15 "2017-03-15T13:35:30Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Does he pat some good boys on the back and put some to the rod? I hear he was into receiving corporal punishment. ---
**Author:** ![ckalli1998](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ckalli1998](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ckalli1998)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/16 "2017-03-15T13:37:14Z")
No, he doesn’t. But like every major political figure, Republican or Democrat, he does have surrogates who go on television to defend him and his political actions, objectives, and accomplishments. People like Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany on CNN, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/17 "2017-03-15T13:41:45Z")
> [@Goosie](#): > > Does President Trump use private “goon squads” to deal with people who displease him somehow? > Could he become America’s “Papa Doc”? Every day, I am absolutely amazed. I think the comments on this board about Trump have got to have hit bottom and can’t sink any lower in the Slough of Childish Stupidity. And daily I get proven wrong. Apparently, the problem is not that the folks here have hit bottom. The problem is that you keep digging deeper. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/18 "2017-03-15T13:43:12Z")
Two views on the subject: [Daily Kos - OMG!!](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/13/1620228/-Trumps-private-goon-squad) [CNN - Nothing to see here](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/07/politics/secret-service-director-trump/) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/19 "2017-03-15T13:48:14Z")
A loaded term to be sure; however, [the use of private security answerable to him personally](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-security-force-232797) rather than Secret Service security answerable to the government as an institution would clearly fall within its definition. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210/20 "2017-03-15T14:05:39Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Every day, I am absolutely amazed. I think the comments on this board about Trump have got to have hit bottom and can’t sink any lower in the Slough of Childish Stupidity. And daily I get proven wrong. > > Apparently, the problem is not that the folks here have hit bottom. The problem is that you keep digging deeper. Are you afraid they might one day reach your level? Don’t worry, the idiocy in your posts are digging with a backhoe and you’ve a huge head start. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-president-trump-use-private-goon-squads/782210.md?page=2)