# 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:** 174
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3478 "2020-09-11T18:49:00Z")
As an aside, I love Keep Calm and Carry On; I got a mousepad replica of the poster. It so encapsulates the stereotypical British stiff upper lip-edness and under-reaction. (It’s a pity the Brits themselves didn’t see it that way. 🙂 ) I imagine the American equivalent would be “It’s OK. We Got This”. ---
**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:** [September 11, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3479 "2020-09-11T18:53:22Z")
Individual 1 says federal employees who have had their payroll taxes withheld aren’t going to have to pay it back. If he’s reelected. > **[Trump Says Troops Won’t Have to Pay Back Deferred Payroll Taxes -- If He Wins](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/11/trump-says-troops-wont-have-pay-back-deferred-payroll-taxes-if-he-wins.html)** > > President Donald Trump said troops won't have to pay back money owed under his own plan -- if he wins re-election. ---
**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:** [September 11, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3480 "2020-09-11T18:53:39Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I imagine the American equivalent would be “It’s OK. We Got This”. Nowadays, sure. Back then, [_We can do it!_](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ei8eyMPkL._AC_SS350_.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3481 "2020-09-11T18:54:10Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 says federal employees who have had their payroll taxes withheld aren’t going to have to pay it back. If he’s reelected. That sounds an awful lot like “I’ll pay you to vote for me.” ---
**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:** [September 11, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3482 "2020-09-11T19:03:30Z")
Individual 1 mumbled his way through the Pledge of Allegiance at the 911 memorial, sort of stopped trying once he reached Under God, and Melania didn’t even bother. > **[Watch Trump eliminate 'under God' from his recitation of the Pledge of...](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/11/1976709/-Watch-Trump-eliminate-under-God-from-his-recitation-of-the-Pledge-of-Allegiance)** > > Oh, hey, hi there! In case you were wondering how to commemorate 9/11 — this is definitely not the way to do it. His bottom teeth sort of chitter-chattered during the “under God” portion, but he didn’t enunciate. Either way, he elided several bits... ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3483 "2020-09-11T20:08:54Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Nowadays, sure. Back then, [_We can do it!_](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ei8eyMPkL._AC_SS350_.jpg) I think nowadays it’s somewhere between “Hold my beer” and “Who cares, burn it all down”. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3484 "2020-09-11T21:17:56Z")
Trump should be nominated for the Nobble Peace Prize. I’d vote for that. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3485 "2020-09-11T21:32:31Z")
Are we sure it is not the Pieces Prize? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3486 "2020-09-11T21:50:05Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 says federal employees who have had their payroll taxes withheld aren’t going to have to pay it back. If he’s reelected. Yep. And if that happens they won’t have social security to collect when they retire. Wonder who is going to tell folks that? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3487 "2020-09-11T21:58:24Z")
Ooh, and what if he’s lying? ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3488 "2020-09-11T22:12:15Z")
Why on earth would the Trump administration choose to move the POW/MIA Flag from atop the White House? This makes no fucking sense. > **[Removal of flag honoring veterans from White House sparks anger](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-veterans/removal-of-flag-honoring-veterans-from-white-house-sparks-anger-idUSKBN2621DT)** > > A decision by the Trump administration earlier this year to move the flag honoring missing war veterans from a prominent position atop the White House to a less visible spot on the South Lawn has angered some veterans and lawmakers, who see it as... Why??? ---
**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:** [September 11, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3489 "2020-09-11T22:14:39Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > missing war veterans They are all suckers and losers, aren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3490 "2020-09-12T00:28:05Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Why on earth would the Trump administration choose to move the POW/MIA Flag from atop the White House? > > This makes no fucking sense. > > [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-veterans/removal-of-flag-honoring-veterans-from-white-house-sparks-anger-idUSKBN2621DT](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-veterans/removal-of-flag-honoring-veterans-from-white-house-sparks-anger-idUSKBN2621DT) > > Why??? Someone here credibly suggested that it was taken down so that in a few days, Trump can announce that he is Rescuing the Wonderful POW/MIA Flag (i.e. putting it back up). “Fixing” something he’s broken is a frequent go-to for Trump. And he _does_ expect to be hailed as a hero. (No doubt Fox News will comply, with nauseating degrees of groveling.) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3491 "2020-09-12T00:34:50Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > > [@GIGObuster](#): > > > > 2.45 million posters displaying it were printed, only to be pulped and recycled in 1940 to help the British government deal with a serious paper shortage. > > > > It wasn’t until a copy was discovered in a bookshop in Northumberland in 2000, and reproductions of it began to be sold a year later, that its fame was established. > > I rather like the quote in the [Wiki article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On): > > > The remainder of the Ministry of Information publicity campaign was cancelled in October 1939 following criticism of its cost and impact. Many people claimed not to have seen the posters; while those who did see them regarded them as patronising and divisive. Design historian Susannah Walker regards the campaign as “a resounding failure” and reflective of a misjudgement by upper-class civil servants of the mood of the people. > > … I’m guessing that “ **Keep Calm and Carry On** ” might have been seen as the government muckety-mucks talking down to the common people–which they might well resent. No one likes having orders barked at them by a poster. If it had been, instead, something like “ **We are British: We Keep Calm and Carry On** ,” the reaction might have been more positive. ‘We’re all in this together’ and that sort of thing, don’t you know. (The US equivalent “We Can Do It,” mentioned earlier in the thread, is more in that ‘pulling together’ vein.) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3492 "2020-09-12T00:41:56Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > > [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > > > Why on earth would the Trump administration choose to move the POW/MIA Flag from atop the White House? > > > > This makes no fucking sense. > > > > [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-veterans/removal-of-flag-honoring-veterans-from-white-house-sparks-anger-idUSKBN2621DT](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-veterans/removal-of-flag-honoring-veterans-from-white-house-sparks-anger-idUSKBN2621DT) > > > > Why??? > > Someone here credibly suggested that it was taken down so that in a few days, Trump can announce that he is Rescuing the Wonderful POW/MIA Flag (i.e. putting it back up). > > “Fixing” something he’s broken is a frequent go-to for Trump. > > And he _does_ expect to be hailed as a hero. (No doubt Fox News will comply, with nauseating degrees of groveling.) Yup, just like the ordered closure and subsequent reversal of the Stars and Stripes newspaper last week. The Pentagon ordered it shut down, and Trump got to rescue it. But why did the Pentagon order the newspaper shut down in the first place? It’s been around since the Civil War, and has been published continuously since WWII. Does anybody seriously think that SECDEF Esper came up with the idea to shut the newspaper down on his own? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3493 "2020-09-12T00:53:20Z")
After thinking about it for a long time, I do believe that you’ve hit on it. I think Trump _wanted_ to say “virulent”, a word he’d heard others use, but it’s not in his 500 word vocabulary, so he went searching for the word. He knew it meant “strong”, and it had that exotic long “u” in the middle of it (probably why he sorta remembered it), so he ended up with a word he could recall – one that started out with “strength” but had that long “u” . _Strenuous_ – that was a word, right? They couldn’t make fun of him for coming up with something that wasn’t actually a word. It was just a completely inappropriate word. But even if it wasn’t quite right (although he didn’t know that), nobody would point it out or make a big deal out of it. Trump has the _Best_ words. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3494 "2020-09-12T01:01:06Z")
My wife showed me this **DeVos Defends Trump: “Would a Moron Hire Me?”** It looked really hilarious until I pointed out to her that it’s The Borowitz Report > **[DeVos Defends Trump: “Would a Moron Hire Me?”](https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/devos-defends-trump-would-a-moron-hire-me)** > > “My intelligence can be very intimidating,” DeVos said. “And if Donald Trump was a moron, he would not want to be around people who are intelligenter than him.” It’s still hilarious, but not nearly as much. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3495 "2020-09-12T04:42:57Z")
There’s this bombshell coming about two hours ago from Politico: [Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19.](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/11/exclusive-trump-officials-interfered-with-cdc-reports-on-covid-19-412809?fbclid=IwAR0IYf8xBwsenpqHDlO7XcPqoM1pPY2g5FuqeSqvPdRW6IPbc9RymAuPRd8) > The health department’s politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports’ authors and water down their communications to health professionals. > > In some cases, emails from communications aides to CDC Director Robert Redfield and other senior officials openly complained that the agency’s reports would undermine President Donald Trump’s optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to emails reviewed by POLITICO and three people familiar with the situation. > The CDC’s [Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html) are authored by career scientists and serve as the main vehicle for the agency to inform doctors, researchers and the general public about how Covid-19 is spreading and who is at risk. Such reports have historically been published with little fanfare and no political interference, said several longtime health department officials, and have been viewed as a cornerstone of the nation’s public health work for decades. > > But since Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official with no medical or scientific background, was [installed in April](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/michael-caputo-azar-hhs-189046) as the health department’s new spokesperson, there have been substantial efforts to align the reports with Trump’s statements, including the president’s claims that fears about the outbreak are overstated, or stop the reports altogether. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3496 "2020-09-12T05:29:55Z")
Hmmm…it’s not good to have bombshells pushing each other off the front page. They should be spaced out evenly—one per week until Election Day. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/3497 "2020-09-12T05:39:32Z")
^^^ And this is a good point. The amount of lies and redirection with this admin is too much to consider. The caravans, the Rosie O’Donnell trashing, support for “both sides” in racist outbreaks… We need a news report with just clips of all this without any commentary to remind people how deep this state of crap really is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=173) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=175)