# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/161 "2024-11-21T10:54:17Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > A great World’s Fair is in principle a fine idea, but with all such big ideas there is also the potential to screw it up and do it very badly, and screwing things up is something at which Trump is an expert without equal. Yeah, look on the bright side, imagine how entertaining it would be to have a new Fyre Festival increased in scale by several orders of magnitude. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/162 "2024-11-21T12:15:34Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > a new Fyre Festival increased in scale by several orders of magnitude. That’s exactly what popped into my head when I read that. Who will be organizing this? you just know it’s the sort of thing Trump himself would love to do, but he’ll spend all his time rearraigning the layout of the booths based on which States kissed his ass last, and forget about mundane things like parking, ticket booths, and bathrooms. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/163 "2024-11-21T14:36:10Z")
My list is shorter:: 1. Trump will create his own police organization within the Department of Homeland Security. He doesn’t need the military. 2. Science and religion will be further politicized. 3. Trump will encourage by neglect the occupation of public lands. 4. Loyalty oaths will become an issue. I anticipate another modification to the pledge of allegiance. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/164 "2024-11-21T15:16:51Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Trump will create his own police organization within the Department of Homeland Security. He doesn’t need the military. I was thinking about this the other day. A lot of people are talking about the logistics of deporting millions of people, and say it’s not possible. Well, how many people do you really need to have to get a start on this? Criminals outnumber cops in just about every major city in the world, but cops routinely arrest lots of criminals, because they take the initiative, and can plan to have more cops in any one location to do the arrests. Have a team of say, 100 agents, who plan raids on soft targets where immigrants can be found in large, but not overwhelming numbers. Like businesses that employ them. If a team can arrest 50 people a day, that’s 250 per 5 day work week. That’s 13,000 per year, per team. Put one team in one major city per state, and that’s 630,000 people detained per year, using only 5,000 agents. The FBI [includes 13,412 special agents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation#Personnel) Homeland Security Investigations [has approximately 6,000 Special Agents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement#Organization) The US Border Patrol [has 19,648 agents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol). So that’s on the order of 40,000 people already working for the US Federal government who already have all the skills and equipment needed to do this. Add in various city and state police forces, and I’m sure you could find 5,000 people willing to do this job. If you can find 10,000, you’re rounding up well over a million people a year. The logistical problems only come about when you try to process that many people using normal court proceedings, and deport them in a humane manner. Trump won’t care about either of those things. He’ll tell them to just dump them at the border to live or die on their own. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/165 "2024-11-21T15:26:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > ISTR he has proposed a “great national state fair” for 2026 which would resemble a World’s Fair and include pavilions from all 50 states. Starting a real World’s Fair now is too late, and Trump will use that fact in pursuit of his ends. Biden should have made this a priority in his inaugural address. It would have been a Sister Souljah moment where he showed his patriotism by distancing himself from the 1619 Project. Whatever Trump does now will be to make the case that the Democrats were too woke to care about the nation’s 250th birthday. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/166 "2024-11-21T16:46:05Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Whatever Trump does now will be to make the case that the Democrats were too woke to care about the nation’s 250th birthday. He may indeed try to lie as usual, and the cultists will believe him as usual, but the reality is that although it’s undoubtedly too late for a traditional full-scale world’s fair – which properly should have been an international event anyway – it’s not too late to organize a major celebration – and for Trump and his minions to screw it up. Perhaps it will be held in the parking lot of Four Seasons Landscaping. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/167 "2024-11-26T21:49:20Z")
I’m just going to throw this in here for want of a better place. As much enormous damage as the Orange Buffoon is going to inflict on America, from an economic standpoint it could be even worse for Canada. The Buffoon is threatening immediate 25% tariffs on **all** goods imported from Canada if we don’t control “illegal immigration and drugs flowing from Canada to the US”. WTF? Almost all illegal immigrants coming to the US come in over the Mexico border, and illicit drugs (and guns) almost exclusively flow **from** the US **into** Canada. It’s almost impossible to overestimate the effect these blanket tariffs would have. It would totally tank the Canadian economy, spur massive inflation and unprecedented interest rates, kill the housing market, totally disrupt the supply chain, and send Canada into a 1930s style depression. It would be pretty bad news for the US, too, but not as extreme. This may sound like hyperbole but the man is mentally unstable, and if he actually does implement the tariffs threatened in his latest typically demented and randomly capitalized late-night rant, this will all happen. > **[How seriously should we take Trump's tariff threat, and how could it affect...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-are-tariffs-trump-1.7393372)** > > Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico on his first day in office. We break down what that means, and how it could affect you. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/168 "2024-11-26T21:55:55Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s almost impossible to overestimate the effect these blanket tariffs would have. It would totally tank the Canadian economy, spur massive inflation and unprecedented interest rates, kill the housing market, totally disrupt the supply chain, and send Canada into a 1930s style depression. I’m honestly nearly at the point where I’m like, “Okay, fine, have it your way, absolutely trash modern society, because like a child near a hot stove, it seems like the only way these idiots are going to learn is to just let them burn themselves. Burn so badly it gets through the right-wing echo chamber brainwashing, burn so badly they remember it for the next twenty years and don’t vote for it all over again.” We told them this would happen, and they didn’t listen. If it weren’t for all the other people that would get screwed along with the MAGAts, I’d actually be advocating for this. But advocating or not doesn’t really matter at this point. We’re all just going to have to live through the coming years of suckage. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/169 "2024-11-26T21:58:17Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > The Buffoon is threatening immediate 25% tariffs on **all** goods imported from Canada if we don’t control “illegal immigration and drugs flowing from Canada to the US”. WTF? Almost all illegal immigrants coming to the US come in over the Mexico border, and illicit drugs (and guns) almost exclusively flow **from** the US **into** Canada. Yeah, this is what I don’t get. Where are all the illegals crossing from Canada to the US? Oh, I’m sure there are some, but nowhere near the amount coming over the US’s southern border. And when some do try to illegally enter the US from Canada, it’s news, because they invariably come from a warmer part of the world, have no idea what winter is like here, and typically die from hypothermia in the attempt. Hell, if anything, we’ve had to deal with a bunch of refugees who are safely in the US, but try to enter Canada illegally (e.g., the Roxham Road illegal crossing from New York State). Where the hell does Trump get this idea that “illegals are pouring in over the northern border”? ---
**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:** [November 26, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/170 "2024-11-26T22:02:18Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Where the hell does Trump get this idea that “illegals are pouring in over the northern border”? Probably the same place he got the idea that Haitian refugees are eating their neighbours’ dogs and cats. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/171 "2024-11-26T22:05:57Z")
I was curious about the magnitude of this issue, this morning. Here’s a good article I found (9/2024): > **[This New York farmer is overwhelmed by illegal crossings from Canada, caught...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/canada-us-border-migrants-security-camera-footage-1.7329983)** > > A New York farmer whose lands run along the Canada-U.S. border says people are using his land to enter the U.S. illegally. He installed trail cameras that have captured dozens of people travelling on foot. > The U.S. Border Patrol intercepted just over 8,000 people, mostly from India, crossing between June and August through an area called the Swanton Sector, which includes Oliver’s farm. That was nearly quadruple the number over the same period last year. The included graph shows a distinct upward trend since 1/2021. Yes. It pales in comparison to the Southern Border, but … Trump. Best case is he’s trying to extort … something from you guys. But it needs be said: I’m really sorry. I did what I could. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/172 "2024-11-26T22:45:51Z")
I thought the one advantage of Trump, over [other Republicans like DeSantis and Haley](https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/03/mexico-republicans-us-america-invade-drugs-migration-cartels/), was that DJT’s isolationism would lead him to back down from military threats against Mexico. But this makes the case that an unwinnable war against Mexico is in our future: > **[Take Trump’s Threats of U.S. Military Action in Mexico Seriously](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trump-us-mexico-military/?nsl_bypass_cache=dead59b7d78275d81b58d0d3c5928f42)** > > The Trump administration appears on course to launch a military operation into Mexico next year. We need to start preparing for that. > [@](#): > > What does victory look like? In fact, the drugs will continue to be produced by new or reconstituted cartels that will traffic them into the U.S. using new routes, because the market forces driving the drug cartels are too profitable to defeat with military might. We know this because Mexico has already tried. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/173 "2024-11-26T22:47:42Z")
While I realize this isn’t your intent, it needs to be said that you (the generic “you”) can make anything look bad by focusing one one narrow aspect of it. A farmer’s field is not representative of a 5,525-mile border. As one Canadian official put it, a typical weekend at the Mexican border produces more illegal crossings that an entire year over the Canadian border. Still, there’s the reality here that Canada prides itself on being very welcoming to immigrants, and if the price of saving our economy is cracking down on some folks who maybe shouldn’t be here, I’m not going to object. We’ve already substantially reduced immigration quotas in response to public opinion, not based on xenophobia, but on the stresses that it imposes on our infrastructure, a point that I’ve been making for decades. > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > The U.S. Border Patrol intercepted just over 8,000 people, mostly from India, crossing between June and August through an area called the Swanton Sector I would like to know how these people got into Canada. They’re obviously not legitimate immigrants seeking a productive life in Canada, so why the hell were they admitted? They certainly didn’t row here from India in the middle of the night. Trump may be full of shit, but I have no problem with this kind of immigration loophole being closed. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2024, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/174 "2024-11-26T22:50:51Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > I thought the one advantage of Trump, over [other Republicans like DeSantis and Haley](https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/03/mexico-republicans-us-america-invade-drugs-migration-cartels/), was that DJT’s isolationism would lead him to back down from military threats against Mexico. He was pretty aggressive during his last term; his “isolationism” is merely a matter of him not caring about the sovereignty or interests of other nations at all and only treating them as tributaries or enemies. I do recall the [reports](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-discussed-using-nuclear-weapon-north-korea-2017-blaming-someone-rcna65120) that he wanted to nuke North Korea at one point, and there’s going to be less restraint on him now. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2024, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/175 "2024-11-26T22:55:36Z")
Yeah, he’s not the typical isolationist, more like a madman who’s more likely to instigate a nuclear war than any other potential president. Probably not with Russia, but possibly with North Korea or China, or doing so indirectly by policies that spur Ukraine to accelerate its development of its own nuclear weapons which they’re reported to be working on. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/176 "2024-11-26T23:24:17Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I would like to know how these people got into Canada. Tourist visa. If I have the right idea, they are affluent enough to get a tourist visa to Canada, but do not meet the U.S. criteria. If they didn’t meet either Canadian or U.S. criteria, they would have to get a tourist visa to some central American nation, and then go through the terrible route into Mexico. > [@wolfpup](#): > > We’ve already substantially reduced immigration quotas in response to public opinion, not based on xenophobia, but on the stresses that it imposes on our infrastructure, a point that I’ve been making for decades. Or do they already have a U.S. job lined up, perhaps in an Indian restaurant needing more workers and unable to get them legally due to U.S. immigration quotas being too low? Some of your questions may be answered here: [Why Indians are risking it all to chase the American Dream](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2ld7r4432o) > [@](#): > > Then there has been a rise in tensions over the separatist [Khalistan movement](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66852291), which seeks to establish an independent homeland for Sikhs. “This has caused fear from some Sikhs in India about being unfairly targeted by authorities or politicians. These fears may also provide a credible basis for claims of persecution that allows them to seek asylum, whether or not true,” says Ms Puri. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/177 "2024-11-27T00:12:13Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Tourist visa. If I have the right idea, they are affluent enough to get a tourist visa to Canada, but do not meet the U.S. criteria. If I understand your BBC item correctly, getting a Canadian visa is also faster: something like about a year for an American visa, but only about 76 days for a Canadian one. That might influence their decision, if they can get to Canada faster. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/178 "2024-11-27T00:40:26Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > But this makes the case that an unwinnable war against Mexico is in our future: And this reminds me of something I read in a novel by Frederick Forsythe: imagine an America without narcotics. All those drug dealers no longer making money. All those drug users no longer getting fixes. You want to deploy the US military to deal with riots? You’ll have plenty of opportunity if there are no drugs in the US. (Forsythe plays this scenario out in a novel called **The Cobra** , in which US and UK Special Forces simply start killing drug smugglers rather than arresting them. Good book, I’d highly recommend it.) But there will always be drugs in the US because the staggering sums of money involved can and will compromise _anyone_. So if the US Military wipes out the Mexican cartels, you just get a new cartel, the US Military. For example, here’s a pretty recent story: > **[Former service member sentenced to 12 years for conspiring to smuggle drugs...](https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/former-service-member-sentenced-12-years-conspiring-smuggle-drugs-us)** > > San Diego resident Roberto Salazar II, 26, who until his arrest was an active-duty U.S. Marine stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, was sentenced in federal court April 21, to 144 months in prison for his role in a years-long... I would challenge Trump to start small if he wants to win the war on drugs. Find the records of the White House Pharmacy for 2016-2020, if these still exist. Look at the people in those records who were taking enough uppers and downers for it to be considered abuse of these common but nonetheless narcotic products. Get one of them, just a single one, to stop doing drugs. What did it take? What did you have to do? What worked and what didn’t work? Yes, shooting the person in the head is an effective cure for everything but is that something you want to do in every circumstance? See how that goes before you scale it up times America. ---
**Author:** ![TeroSunbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terosunbear/32/14748_2.png) [@TeroSunbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeroSunbear)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/179 "2024-11-27T01:41:38Z")
Trump may be doing exactly what the GOP has wanted to do…forever. Undo the New Deal. This will be well under way by the 2026 election. Will the MAGA folk even notice it? Their lives should not be improved by any of what he does. They may be pleased to see foreigners rounded up. But that’s about it for pleasing MAGA. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/180 "2024-11-27T02:19:38Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s almost impossible to overestimate the effect these blanket tariffs would have. You should have expected that your “really nice apartment over a meth lab” would c0me with easements? > [@Horatius](#): > > I’m honestly nearly at the point where I’m like, "Okay, fine, have it your way … Passed the “Let all the poison that lurks in the mud, hatch out.” point myself a while ago. Have some handy geographic and structural economic advantages over here but a fall-out will probably still be ugly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774.md?page=10)