# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making Part Deux (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083 "2020-06-22T03:36:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 143
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2857 "2020-08-28T17:06:32Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I’ve been harping on this for four years. He didn’t just make a vague promise (I’ll give you better healthcare") he said he actually had a healthcare plan all ready to go. It was a done deal. Republicans: “That’s someone else’s fault” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2858 "2020-08-28T17:08:23Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@asahi](#): > > > > That’s too simplistic, and in fact, some people might actually be better off financially than they were 4 years ago. > > No doubt some people are. What about the millions of unemployed who also lost their health insurance (if they ever had any). What about the loss of faith in the government as an institution, What about COVID? There’s more to “better off” than a few extra dollars in the bank. The problem, **ThelmaLou** , is that what you’re asking is “is America better off now than it was 4 years ago” and that doesn’t have the same very personal tone that “are you better off now tan it was 4 years ago”. One is abstract and the other is very concrete, and the concrete is easier for people to assess. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2859 "2020-08-28T17:09:11Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@asahi](#): > > > > It’s not looking good even if Biden wins. Biden winning is the minimum required to keep America a functioning democratic republic, but even if he wins, it might still not be enough. He’ll be handed a shit sandwich of epic proportions, and he’ll probably have limited time - maybe a year - to give people the impression that he is capable of fixing it. > > IF Biden wins, the Republicans will spend 100% of their effort obstructing and trying to damage the country as much as possible. This is what they do. They’re not even subtle about it. Aye; anyone thinking that this mess stops because Biden gets elected is as dumb as anyone who thought this mess would stop just because Obama got elected. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2860 "2020-08-28T17:17:40Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Aye; anyone thinking that this mess stops because Biden gets elected is as dumb as anyone who thought this mess would stop just because Obama got elected. If the Senate turns blue and the House remains blue, a Biden win will help enormously. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2861 "2020-08-28T17:20:22Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Aye; anyone thinking that this mess stops because Biden gets elected is as dumb as anyone who thought this mess would stop just because Obama got elected. Double-aye. Winning the federal elections is the starting point for fixing America. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2862 "2020-08-28T17:44:20Z")
Remind me: how did 2008 work out? Oh, that’s right: Trump got elected in 2016. > [@Pleonast](#): > > Winning the federal elections is the starting point for fixing America. Maybe. It certainly didn’t work out that way in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2863 "2020-08-28T17:48:08Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Trump said his plan for replacing most aspects of Obama’s health-care law is all but finished. Although he was coy about its details — “lower numbers, much lower deductibles” — he said he is ready to unveil it alongside Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). > > “It’s very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven’t put it in quite yet but we’re going to be doing it soon,” Trump said. He noted that he is waiting for his nominee for secretary of health and human services, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), to be confirmed. That decision rests with the Senate Finance Committee, which hasn’t scheduled a hearing. The infamous press conference with the booklets supposedly containing thousands of documents with the details of the GOP health plan (which no one was allowed to open and examine) was one of the defining and cruelly hilarious moments of the current administration. But while that was a huge moment to me, it caused nary a blip on Trump supporters’ radars. We’re in a shitload of trouble as a modern democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2864 "2020-08-28T18:14:33Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Remind me: how did 2008 work out? > > Oh, that’s right: Trump got elected in 2016. Wait. Is your prospective that the country is worse off now than it was in 2007? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2865 "2020-08-28T18:18:04Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Wait. Is your prospective that the country is worse off now than it was in 2007 ? Is there any dispute about this? Of course this is worse. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2866 "2020-08-28T18:26:49Z")
I gained 20 pounds during Trump’s term. Fuck you Trump! ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2867 "2020-08-28T18:54:36Z")
I wildly disagree. Sure things are worse now than in 2015 but there was a lot of good between 2007 and 2015. Millions of people have healthcare now that didn’t before. Even as bad as unemployment currently is we’re still comparable to the October 2009 unemployment rate. There is more green energy production and coal has been virtually driven out of our economy dropping from 1146 short tons to 705. We have less people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan down from 899 in 2007 to 22 in 2019. Median household income has increased about from about $70.8K to to $74.6. I’m hard pressed to come up with ways the country is worse. Trump has certainly rolled back a lot of what Obama did but there is certainly mostly good remaining. I don’t believe that will be true if Trump gets 4 more years but it still seems to be OK. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2868 "2020-08-28T19:11:40Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I’m hard pressed to come up with ways the country is worse We have an imbecile at the reigns now, who knows little and cares nothing about this country’s problems and how to address them. He appointed incompetent lackeys to run the agencies of government, and appointed a large number of unqualified judges. We have no foreign policy and have cozied up to our adversaries and insulted our friends. We are worse now because a huge percentage of citizens are okay and many actively support a man who isn’t fit to be mayor of a small town. This isn’t just about jobs, war, the economy or even the environment. We have been revealed as a nation with 45% or so of its citizens indifferent to corruption, incompetence, and divisive racism. Maybe that was true in 2008, but I sure has hell didn’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2869 "2020-08-28T19:25:14Z")
I agree with all you wrote, @Procrustus. This seems as good a place as any to put this: > **[Legal hurdles, pandemic would bedevil Biden efforts to undo Trump immigration...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-immigration-insight/legal-hurdles-pandemic-would-bedevil-biden-efforts-to-undo-trump-immigration-overhaul-idUSKBN25O1IO)** > > Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says he will reverse some of U.S. President Donald Trump's restrictive immigration policies should he win in November, but the dizzying number of changes could take months or years to undo, according to... A depressing read. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2870 "2020-08-28T19:29:18Z")
It does seem as though the current Republican plan, seeing as how they don’t think that they can win in November, is to leave the country in such a state of disrepair that it _cannot_ be fixed by the next election cycle, and then blame all the problems on the Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2871 "2020-08-28T19:36:46Z")
That’s what I think, too. I’ve thought it for a long while. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2872 "2020-08-28T19:42:43Z")
That’s been their MO since W won his second term. And it boggles my mind that everyone can’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2873 "2020-08-28T19:51:43Z")
Individual 1, replying to a question as to what he would do in his second term: “But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done,” > **[Donald Trump's answer on what he would do in a 2nd term is literally...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/28/politics/donald-trump-2nd-term-new-york-times/index.html)** > > On Thursday night, President Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination for a second term. Twenty-four hours earlier, he had a very hard time saying exactly what he would do with another four years. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2874 "2020-08-28T19:53:19Z")
Yep. And yet we are still going to do what we can to fix America, because we actually love our country, unlike the Republican Party. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2875 "2020-08-28T19:54:07Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Yep. And yet we are still going to do what we can to fix America, because we actually love our country, unlike the Republican Party. - We absolutely are. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/2876 "2020-08-28T20:01:43Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1, replying to a question as to what he would do in his second term: > “But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done,” A comparison between Trump and Commandant Lassard: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/aKZb54lTz2Q/hqdefault.jpg "very very tremendous trump") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKZb54lTz2Q) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=142) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=144)