# 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:** 18
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/345 "2020-06-28T18:41:31Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > There’s even some speculation that if Trump thinks he’s going to lose, he’ll maybe pull a flounce sometime along about August. “I gave you assholes the best economy!! The best military!! The best people!! You don’t deserve me!! I’m outta here!!” I don’t see that happening. Even if we reach a point where polls say he’s going to lose Texas by 8 points, he will just assume that they are fake news, and just like in 2016 he will pull out an amazing upset. After all everyone he talks to says what a great job he’s doing, and the crowds at his rallies love him. This assumes of course that he is even told what the polls say, chances are his campaign staff have learned not to tell him bad news. On the good side this over confidence may make it somewhat less likely that he will take truly drastic action to fix the election (say initiate martial law in cities to prevent voting, or arresting members of Biden’s team.) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/346 "2020-06-28T18:41:54Z")
> [@anny\_m](#): > > Should this happen in early or mid August, the GOP could nominate someone else as their candidate. Who that would be is up for speculation. Can a political party change their candidate to one that did not win a primary? Isn’t the President head of the GOP? ---
**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:** [June 28, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/347 "2020-06-28T18:50:17Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Can a political party change their candidate to one that did not win a primary? Isn’t the President head of the GOP? Sure, it’s just a club, and primaries are just suggestions. They do have rules about how primaries work and the consequences of them, but they are just rules, not laws, and can be changed or broken with little if any consequence. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/348 "2020-06-28T19:43:52Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > On the good side this over confidence may make it somewhat less likely that he will take truly drastic action to fix the election (say initiate martial law in cities to prevent voting, Perhaps declare martial law to keep voters off the streets due to covid19. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/349 "2020-06-28T20:19:14Z")
Trump and his swinging door administration are very transparent. So he kept that promise. “We are a bunch of assholes that don’t care about anything or anyone but us” ---
**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:** [June 28, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/350 "2020-06-28T22:10:50Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I don’t see that happening. No, neither do I. His capacity for self-delusion generally protects him from recognizing the things that are actually happening to him. But that said, have you listened to some of the things he’s said out loud lately? I doubt I can find a link to the tweet and would really prefer to not have to try, but he tweeted within the last few days that Biden will have to finish the wall. I was surprised it didn’t draw more attention, because as with all things Trump, he can’t help but say the quiet part out loud. In this case, it was the acknowledgment that it will be Biden who handles an unfinished wall. Not Trump. Gave me pause. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/351 "2020-06-28T22:50:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The Republicans may decide it’s time to cut loose from Trump and let him fall. They might feel that four more years of letting Trump be President will do more harm to the Republican party than just sitting back and letting Biden win. I’m becoming increasing convinced of this. They’re probably hoping for someone maybe just a tad more competent to carry out their toxic agenda. Hilarious, annoyingly so, if he ended up getting replaced by, say, Graham. Or Gymnasium Jordan. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/353 "2020-06-28T22:58:11Z")
]He wouldn’t change his stance on mail-in voting because he most likely thinks that more dark-skinned folk will die from the pandemic than his base. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/354 "2020-06-28T23:06:13Z")
Great - that last post was supposed to be in response to: **Little Nemo:** “He’ll probably change his stance on mail-in voting and tell his supporters to make sure they send in their votes for him before they die.” ::getting just a little wall-punchy now:: ---
**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:** [June 28, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/355 "2020-06-28T23:15:37Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > > > On the good side this over confidence may make it somewhat less likely that he will take truly drastic action to fix the election (say initiate martial law in cities to prevent voting, > > Perhaps declare martial law to keep voters off the streets due to covid19. Those advising Trump—many of whom have reason to fear indictment if he’s no longer in power—will try to disguise their involvement in derailing the November 2020 election by having Trump lean on GOP governors to call off elections in their states (using either COVID or protests or both as justification). They’ll call it “delay,” not “call off,” of course. That way, Trump can ‘keep his hands clean.’ If the 26 GOP governors can all (or most) be pressured to “delay” the election, it will give Trump some sort of cover to declare any results from the Democratic-led states invalid. ‘With heavy heart, he will heed his nation’s call to continue leading’ (etc.) ‘until this crisis is past, which will be within a few short months.’ Some will buy it. Trump’s 30% of hardcore supporters will be overjoyed, and the indifferent 40% of the population will just shrug and say ‘what can you do?’ The 30% who would crawl over broken glass to oust Trump will come out in protest, which will serve to keep the low-information 40% compliant—look at all those protesters! I guess the nation really is in crisis, and we have to just get through it… Combine this with some genuinely shocking “news” about Biden (expect pedophilia and treason at the least), and many will just go along to get along. I think this is what Barr and other enablers and the family hope to get away with. Going ahead with the November election is a major problem for them, because if the election IS held, it will be held after months and months of “Trump is down 16% in the polls” news, and the attempt to let Trump stay in the Oval on the basis that votes were fraudulent will ring hollow. Many won’t believe such a story. After so many months of people realizing that Trump has lost what popularity he had, a narrative based on ‘he really got more votes but they cheated’ will seem very implausible. So their best course is to make sure there is no election. Or more specifically, none that can be considered legitimate, because votes were taken only in half the states. All that is needed is the cooperation of the Republican governors. Look for both carrot and stick: what’s happening with federal-to-states funding of all kinds? Which governors and Secretaries of State are suddenly experiencing personal windfalls? Who is golfing with Trump? Who is getting big grants for pork-barrel projects? ---
**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:** [June 28, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/356 "2020-06-28T23:24:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@Sherrerd](#): > > > > In _How to Get Rich_ , Trump links his own germaphobia to the idea that some people are born losers. Winners are people who think positively—and positivity repels germs. “To me, germs are just another kind of negativity.” … The train of thought here is typically meandering, but the logic is clear enough. **Losers are inevitably doomed by their own negativity, of which germs are a physical form. Infection happens to some people because they are natural losers**. > > The logic is clear but it’s not saying what Trump thinks. He says he believes germs only affect “losers”. And he acknowledges that he’s afraid of germs. > > Isn’t that Trump admitting he sees himself as a loser? If he saw himself as a winner, he wouldn’t worry about germs because he’d be immune to them. Trump is obsessed with the question of whether people see him as a loser. He suspects he may be a loser. He can’t tolerate the thought that others might believe he’s a loser. He blusters and brags and beneath it all, worries that he’ll be identified as a LOSER LOSER LOSER. Trump is profoundly insecure. Intensely, deeply, neurotically insecure. So, yes, the self-contradiction is always present: he believes he can’t get sick because he’s a winner and therefore germs can’t affect him, AND he’s terrified of germs. Both ideas battle back and forth in his confused, Swiss-cheesed brain. Both are true at once. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/357 "2020-06-29T00:19:39Z")
# U.S. Department of Justice’s statement in Hawaii quarantine lawsuit tossed > **[U.S. Department of Justice’s statement in Hawaii quarantine lawsuit tossed |...](https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/06/27/hawaii-news/u-s-department-of-justices-statement-in-quarantine-lawsuit-tossed/)** > > A federal judge in Honolulu said she will “disregard” the U.S. Department of Justice’s statement in support of a lawsuit challenging Hawaii’s 14-day self-quarantine imposed on arriving travelers in an attempt to protect against the spread of the... “In an order issued late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jill Otake said she will disregard the Justice Department’s statement when deciding whether to issue a temporary restraining order against the quarantine. The statement amounts to an attempt by the Justice Department to amend the lawsuit in a case where it is not a plaintiff, said Otake, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump.” Fake conversation - “Obviously an activist order issued by a “Nasty” Obama Judge. Loser,” he twitters. “Sir, you appointed her.” “I was not responsible. It must have been my prefrontal dementia.” Don D’Orange exclaimed. /fake conversation ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/358 "2020-06-29T00:46:31Z")
It is a good book. I don’t believe they can delay the election. Trump’s term ends in Jan. they didn’t delay elections in ww2. I can’t figure that that they could come up with a reason a court would uphold. If Covid is raging in November, mail in is a reasonable alternative. I could see a court ruling a go ahead on mail in over a delay. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/359 "2020-06-29T04:43:07Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I am saying that accepting a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt, which means that if Individual-ONE were to be pardoned in that way, he would be admitting to unspecified illegal acts, so everything he did could be treated as the act of a criminal (illegal) and easily reversed. His signature on legislation could be seen as invalid, allowing Biden to force reconsideration of, say, the tax cut bill. Perhaps even his pardons could be reversed at will. I don’t think it works that way. A blanket pardon says that he cannot be charged with any federal crimes he committed. That doesn’t mean that everything he did was a crime. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/360 "2020-06-29T05:16:49Z")
Acceptance\* of a pardon being an admission of a crime is mostly just something Gerald Ford told himself so he could feel better about pardoning Nixon. It was based in something the Supreme Court ruled (and then later hinted it was wrong about IIRC) but it’s not some formal legal doctrine with sweeping consequences either. The idea that it would overturn legislation retroactively (WTF?) is just magical thinking. \*Also, if you haven’t been charged yet, AFAIK there’s nowhere for you to go to formally “accept” the pardon. The Department of Justice just…doesn’t prosecute you. You can’t make the President’s employees charge you with a crime if the President says they shouldn’t. ---
**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:** [June 29, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/361 "2020-06-29T17:49:32Z")
Individual 1 is now saying that he was not briefed about the Russia bounties because the intelligence was not credible. > **[Trump Says He Was Not Briefed On Russian Bounties Because Intelligence 'Not...](https://www.npr.org/2020/06/28/884407572/trump-denies-briefing-on-russian-bounties-reportedly-placed-on-u-s-troops)** > > The president says he was never briefed on intelligence, first reported by The New York Times, showing Russia had offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill Western forces in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/362 "2020-06-29T17:52:56Z")
Guessing Putin told him that. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/363 "2020-06-29T18:07:11Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 is now saying that he was not briefed about the Russia bounties because the intelligence was not credible. Certainly more credible than his. Either he was told and is denying it or people were afraid to tell him. Not sure which is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/364 "2020-06-29T18:21:27Z")
The Trump playbook in action yet again: 1. DENY (I was never briefed) 2. DISMISS (Oh, wait, I was briefed but realized the story wasn’t credible) 3. LIE (It’s all fake news / a witchhunt / a Dem hoax) 4. DISTRACT (Obama is the traitor) ---
**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:** [June 29, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/365 "2020-06-29T18:22:00Z")
All roads lead to #4. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=19)