# The current second Trump administration: a compendium of horrors **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 6, 2024, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774 "2024-11-06T09:17:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 83
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1642 "2025-05-24T20:11:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > > > f people are paying $300,000 for a meal with the President, they’re not there for the meal. > > They’re also not there for a culinary insult. Just to add, this disgusting meal was perfectly in line with the “cufflinks incident” portrayed in the movie _The Apprentice_, which was apparently true. The opprobrious lawyer Roy Cohn had been instrumental in making Trump’s career and teaching him to become the unprincipled attack dog that he is today. When Cohn lay dying, Trump ceremoniously presented him with a gift – a pair of diamond-studded gold cufflinks from Tiffany’s adorned with Trump’s name. Except that they weren’t gold, those weren’t diamonds, and they had never even been near Tiffany’s. They were worthless knock-offs. Trump has no ethics, no class, no taste, and absolutely no shame. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1643 "2025-05-24T21:38:26Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > When Cohn lay dying, Trump ceremoniously presented him with a gift – a pair of diamond-studded gold cufflinks from Tiffany’s adorned with Trump’s name. Except that they weren’t gold, those weren’t diamonds, and they had never even been near Tiffany’s. They were worthless knock-offs. That’s a thing with Trump: [Trump has been giving out fake diamond cuff links for years](https://nypost.com/2016/06/21/trump-has-been-giving-out-fake-diamond-cuff-links-for-years/) > Donald Trump has been doling out diamond cuff links to unsuspecting pals as presents — but they’re actually fabulous fakes, sources say. > > At least three recipients later learned that the glittery gifts were valuable only as mementos from Trump. > > Actor Charlie Sheen recently called out The Donald for the ruse, saying Trump once gave him his own cuff links as a wedding present and boasted that they came from one of the city’s leading jewelers. > > “He says . . . ‘I want to give you an early wedding gift as a gesture from me and Melania’ — and she doesn’t say a word, she’s very sweet and very pretty but just kinda sits there,” Sheen told the BBC, referring to a time he ran into Trump and his wife in a restaurant about five years ago. > > “He says, ‘These are platinum diamond Harry Winston,’ and he pulls off his cuff links, and he gives them to me.” > > The actor said he took the links to an appraiser six months later, only to learn that they were worthless. > > “She took [her magnifying] loupe, spent about 4 seconds and kind of recoiled from it,” Sheen quipped. “She says, ‘In their finest moment, this is cheap pewter and bad zirconias.’ And they’re stamped ‘Trump.’” I’m not sure “fabulous” is the right word to describe the cufflinks, maybe in the sense that their value is imaginary. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1644 "2025-05-24T21:47:24Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Harvard Derangement Syndrome Trump is now claiming that, unlike the genius that he’s long claimed he himself possesses, Harvard students are so stupid that they literally cannot add 2+2. > **[Trump attacks Harvard students: 'Can't add 2 and 2'](https://www.rawstory.com/trump-harvard-math-2672194948/)** > > As part of his ongoing attack on Harvard University, President Donald Trump attacked students admitted to the Ivy League school, saying that students there "can't add." While signing an executive order on an unrelated matter, Trump criticized... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1645 "2025-05-24T22:50:05Z")
Reminds me of a joke about 3 friends who each owe a dying fourth friend $100. He dies before the debts get paid. At the burial two of the guys solemnly drop Benjamins into the grave atop the coffin before the dirt goes back in the grave. The third drops in a check for $100. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1646 "2025-05-24T22:55:21Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Well, this is Trump, master of cheapness and bad taste. Here’s what they got. It was supposed to be filet mignon and pan-fried halibut. I presume the pale thing on the right is a piece of dead halibut, not really fried much. What the black thing on the left is I have no idea, but I presume that’s Trump’s idea of a filet mignon. I know he likes his steaks well done and then re-hydrates them with ketchup, but this thing looks beyond salvation. The veggies look equally sad. The other day, I made chicken and dumplings using ingredients all acquired from Dollar Tree and the food bank. It was magnificent. I’ll take that over Trump’s plate. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1647 "2025-05-24T23:01:18Z")
No one went to that dinner expecting good food. The point was an opportunity to pay Trump a bribe. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1648 "2025-05-24T23:56:07Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > No one went to that dinner expecting good food. What attendees may or may not have expected wasn’t really my point. It was billed as an upscale affair – the “Donald J Trump $TRUMP Gala Dinner”, and someone thought to spend at least some money on filet mignon and fresh halibut, finished, respectively, with demi-glace and citrus reductions. The pretentious wording of the menu clearly suggests they were aiming for an upscale experience. The point is, by all accounts it was badly cooked, the presentation was embarrassingly sloppy, the ingredients extremely basic, and it lacked any of the added ingredients and garnishes one would expect in something billed as a “gala” dinner. Like everything that Trump has anything to do with, it was a careless, incompetent mess that’s been justifiably ridiculed on social media. It was an insult to the guests. It was a typical Trump fiasco. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1649 "2025-05-25T00:53:19Z")
Trump would drop in a check for $300 and take the two $100 bills as change. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1650 "2025-05-25T01:02:08Z")
I’m embarrassed to have stated [this thread years ago,](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mini-rants-about-members-of-the-same-sex/545454) but is my karmic punishment the fact that I was describing the future president of the US? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1651 "2025-05-25T01:13:32Z")
I just have to say that I occasionally make filets mignon at home. I use USDA Prime beef. I wrap it in very good bacon. I cook it to rare. (Or medium-rare, it I blow it.) It’s always good. Without even an interior shot of Trump’s beef, it looks overcooked. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1652 "2025-05-25T01:33:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The third drops in a check for $100. Two friends are walking in a shady neighborhood when a thug with a gun jumps out of the shadows. “Gimme all yer dough!” “Hey, Bob,” says one friend. “Here’s that twenty I owe you.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1653 "2025-05-25T04:16:09Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > No one went to that dinner expecting good food. The point was an opportunity to pay Trump a bribe. Which still makes them dumb for expecting Trump to provide value for money. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1654 "2025-05-25T10:29:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Without even an interior shot of Trump’s beef, it looks overcooked. I, for one, and having worked Silver Sevice in London’s prestigious Knightsbridge Millennium Hotel, so I have some familiarity with the finest of fine dining… … am disappointed your moron-in-chief did not suppy ketchup. (Also the plating is a train wreck, but as I am not a chef, I will let others go there.) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1655 "2025-05-25T10:30:53Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I just have to say that I occasionally make filets mignon at home. I use USDA Prime beef. I wrap it in very good bacon. I cook it to rare. (Or medium-rare, it I blow it.) It’s always good. Without even an interior shot of Trump’s beef, it looks overcooked. My wife and I are terribly spoiled re: steaks. We don’t do it very often, but we only buy from a particular butcher - Filet Mignon. And it’s the only steak I will serve friends. It’s obscenely expensive $40/pound. A number of friends have said that it was/is the best steak they have ever had in their life. It’s worth it, and it’s that good. No comment on that mess Trump served. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1656 "2025-05-25T12:03:20Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Like everything that Trump has anything to do with, it was a careless, incompetent mess that’s been justifiably ridiculed on social media. It was an insult to the guests. It was a typical Trump fiasco. > [@wolfpup](#): > > Trump’s astonishing bad taste is legendary in his mannerisms, in the way he treats and insults others, in his taste in decor, and here we see what he considers “elegance” worthy of a $300,000-a-plate dinner Your comments are spot on. If NOTHING else, this guy is just a complete boor. Yet - knowing that - 50% of voters decided he was their guy! ISTM that just about anyone with anywhere near his wealth and prominence, if they are as lacking in taste as he, they pay someone else to slap some facade of appropriateness on top. I’m trying to think of any other “celebrity/public figure” who is as absolutely lacking in the social graces as Trump. Unless it is someone like Roseanne Barr, where it is part of the act. I’m not saying one needs to be all hoity toity Miss Manners. LBJ was famously down to earth/crude. But my impression is that he at least hired folk who could cook well. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1657 "2025-05-25T12:39:16Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > …here we see what he considers “elegance”… To see what he considers elegance, all we have to do is look at the way he redecorated the Oval office like a fire sale from Gilded Trinkets R Us. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > …if they are as lacking in taste as he… Yeah, but in his mind, excuse the expression, he’s the smartest guy in the world and isn’t lacking in anything. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1658 "2025-05-25T12:41:10Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I’m trying to think of any other “celebrity/public figure” who is as absolutely lacking in the social graces as Trump. Unless it is someone like Roseanne Barr, where it is part of the act. I think it’s part of his act, too. He’s so powerful he can get aware with being a total bore. That’s his shtick ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1659 "2025-05-25T14:41:57Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > it’s part of his act, too. He’s so powerful he can get aware with being a total bore. That’s his shtick (\* “total boor”) Well yes. Been said before, a poor man’s caricature of what it’s like to be rich, a weak man’s caricature if what’s it like to be strong, etc. “When you’re a star you get away with it, you can grab them by the pussy.” And that’s one of his selling points to his “base” - _“The elite look down on you for being common. Just like they looked down on Dad and me for not being Old Money. Let ME show them and make them grind their teeth at having to sit there and take it from someone like me being above them.”_ ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1660 "2025-05-25T18:22:59Z")
Trump has no self awareness whatsoever, so he has no idea that his taste is not necessarily the best, most magnificent taste there is. Therefore there is no need to ask anyone else, such as an expert. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1661 "2025-05-25T20:21:44Z")
The movie Devils Advocate used Trumps apartment in NYC as the Devils apartment (fitting). Trump did not realize they wanted the most garish, tasteless place they could find. They thought they would have to stage it with ridiculous decor. They didn’t change a thing. [Trumps apartment](https://www.cracked.com/article_35701_trump-was-too-dumb-to-realize-the-devils-advocate-was-making-fun-of-him.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774.md?page=82) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774.md?page=84)