# 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:** 202
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4038 "2020-09-28T02:27:21Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Any indication of what might have precipitated all that? My guess is that Parscale is afraid of going to prison (maybe he imagines it in terms of don’t-drop-the-soap popular culture images rather than the relatively benign reality of Club Fed). ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4039 "2020-09-28T02:29:41Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Are you curious, in case you were thinking of getting one, how much it costs to take care of an extra-terrestrial brain-sucking ferret? Apparently one of the deductions he took was $70,000 for hairstyling. I assume this is another bit of fraud, because if not, _oh boy_ did he get ripped off… ---
**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:** [September 28, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4040 "2020-09-28T02:41:55Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Apparently one of the deductions he took was $70,000 for hairstyling. I assume this is another bit of fraud, because if not, _oh boy_ **did he get ripped off…** - Not enough, it’s still up there. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4041 "2020-09-28T03:05:11Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > To summarize the NYT story: Trump got a bunch of from his daddy. He lost it all, but then he got paid hundreds of millions to play a billionaire on TV. He tried to use that to become a real billionaire, but he lost it all again. > > Now he’s starting over, but we’re his daddy." After hearing the above, I wonder how much of the $1 billion reported to have been spent by the Trump campaign has actually been diverted to, uh, more personal expenses. I’m also gobsmacked that, according to the NYT piece, determination of the legitimacy of an old Trump tax refund of +/- $72 million has been held up in audit limbo for more than ten fucking years. How is that even possible? ---
**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 28, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4042 "2020-09-28T03:11:08Z")
> [@From the article which in turn quotes Milley and Mattis](#): > > The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has assured congressional leaders that the military will not interfere in the upcoming presidential election. Hard to believe when he personally participated in Individual 1’s clearing of the streets so he could carry a Bible to the church that didn’t want him there. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4043 "2020-09-28T03:36:01Z")
Imagine being the billionaire President of the United States and being so broke you can no longer own the libs. 🤣 ---
**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 28, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4044 "2020-09-28T03:54:26Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > If the Chief Justice administers the oath of office to not-Individual-ONE, that other person becomes the CiC of the armed forces and they are expected to carry out his orders. The Chief Justice administering the incoming President the oath of office is a tradition but not required. After Kennedy’s assassination for example, LBJ was administered his oath by district judge and long-time friend [Sarah T. Hughes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_inauguration_of_Lyndon_B._Johnson) aboard Air Force One before it left Dallas. I can totally see his nibs barricading himself in the White House along with one of his appointed judges just to muddy the waters further – if that’s possible. ---
**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:** [September 28, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4045 "2020-09-28T04:01:21Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > ### [Former Trump campaign manager, Brad Parscale, armed, barricades self in Fort…](https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/09/28/former-trump-campaign-manager-brad-pascale-armed-barricades-self-in-fl-home-police-called/) > > President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager is in a Fort Lauderdale hospital after he reportedly barricaded himself in his home and was armed and making threats. The comments – it’s full of trolls! ---
**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 28, 2020, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4046 "2020-09-28T06:16:45Z")
My father was a partner in a big accounting firm based in NYC. He worked in Chicago and Philadelphia when I was first born. Towards the end, the PIC wanted to float the offer from Trump Assoc., or whatever they were called back in late '80s. It was not a total asset account or anything, but for Jersey properties, maybe a golf course back then. The partners voted no, claiming they’d never get paid. 😃 The account went to PW, AFAIR… They did get paid. About 2 and 1/2 years later. 😃 ---
**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 28, 2020, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4047 "2020-09-28T08:46:51Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Yet Trump seems to be pretending that if there is no known outcome, then HE remains president. Does he really think that? Yes, I believe he really thinks that. > [@Senegoid](#): > > What is his game, in pushing this theory? To stay in power. It really is that simple. > [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’m also gobsmacked that, according to the NYT piece, determination of the legitimacy of an old Trump tax refund of +/- $72 million has been held up in audit limbo for more than ten fucking years. How is that even possible? Expensive and capable lawyers. I wonder how they’re getting paid? Lawyers don’t work for free. Maybe they’re the only ones getting paid? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4048 "2020-09-28T13:10:29Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Question: Okay, suppose Trump, trying to stay in power, succeeds in totally confounding the election, so that we won’t know in time, and may never know (as he himself has predicted) the outcome? > > How does that imply that Trump remains president? As noted many times by posters on this board, just because we might not have a result for this election, doesn’t mean Trump remains president past January 20. > > Yet Trump seems to be pretending that if there is no known outcome, then HE remains president. Does he really think that? What is his game, in pushing this theory? There have been news reports that the trump admin has been reaching out to Repub-controlled states to see if, in the event the vote count is drawn out and a winner is uncertain, that state’s sympathetic electors will just give the win to trump if he yells “voter fraud!” loud enough. If they could do that in enough swing states…? I have no idea how feasible or legal that scenario would be, but the very idea they are looking into those kinds of shenanigans is very scary. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4049 "2020-09-28T13:38:02Z")
That’s pretty much what we’ve been sayin all along: Fake billionaire. But still somehow uses his name to market and sell people, which in turn means he’s able to get investment banks - somewhere on this planet - to give him cash. Problem for us is, those “banks” probably aren’t; they’re probably conduits for illegitimate sources of funding. Trump finds ways to give dirty thuggish oligarchs what they want in return. The Russian/Eastern European/Cypriot/Caribbean dirty money lords give him cash to prop up his business, which includes real estate, and he in turn gives them real estate so that he they can hide their dirty money in schemes that look legit. They also use him to find ways to skirt laws like the Magnitsky Act and other anti-corruption laws; the oligarchs and dirty money rings in return find ways for him to legitimize his cash-grab scams in dirty offshore banks or “loan” programs of their own. Only now, because he’s president and because the republican party and conservative political movements have invested so much of their money and political stock in Donald Trump the candidate, these foreign oligarchs now also have serious, serious political leverage over the United States. Donald Trump has literally sold out the United States, and most likely US national security, to foreign interests. It’s a win-win for everyone involved; a losing proposition for the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4050 "2020-09-28T13:40:53Z")
In case you’re wondering, [Foxnews.com](http://Foxnews.com) currently has Hunter Biden and stories of scary black people as their lead. The sole indication that this “news” organization is aware that Trump is a tax cheat is the single story way down the page stating Trump says the story is fake. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4051 "2020-09-28T13:44:14Z")
Upon further research, it’s not as easy to do – legally – as it would seem. The legislatures can’t just make up their own laws now without having the governors sign off on it, and the governors in key states are democratic. But they could find ways to still sow chaos - and that is probably just as much a part of their scheme as anything. It’s a mistake to assume that just because the law may not be 100% on their side that they’re powerless to sow chaos and so much of it that they couldn’t end up with an election. Having a national election in which the loser refuses to concede and with that, having 40% of the electorate refusing to concede or accept the outcome with him, is a potentially devastating blow for the health of a democracy. We can’t just take comfort in saying “Well the law actually doesn’t allow them to do that.” – doesn’t matter what the law allows or doesn’t. What matters is that people respect the norms of democracy, and that we mostly operate according to those norms. There are always people on the fringes, but if the fringe goes mainstream and 40% of this country believes that the election was a sham and another 10% are undecided about whether it was or wasn’t, this country still has a major problem, even if Joe Biden becomes the official president-elect. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4052 "2020-09-28T14:06:56Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > We can’t just take comfort in saying “Well the law actually doesn’t allow them to do that.” I know, especially when the Attorney General of the United States is acting as his personal henchman. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4053 "2020-09-28T14:15:03Z")
Indeed. I think that’s really the fear that I have: the danger isn’t that they’re going to come up with a brilliant trick play that we didn’t see coming. The danger is what we can see coming but choose not to take as seriously as we should, and the real ‘strategy’ is to create distortion, noise, confusion. The goal isn’t to use the military to take over Biden’s campaign headquarters, all media outlets, and declare martial law; it’s to create enough confusion and doubt to start using legitimate institutions and mechanisms in illegitimate ways - for the purposes of legitimizing illegitimate actions by the president and his supporters. It’s to blur the lines between fact and fiction. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4054 "2020-09-28T14:20:51Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > In case you’re wondering, [Foxnews.com](http://Foxnews.com) currently has Hunter Biden and stories of scary black people as their lead. The sole indication that this “news” organization is aware that Trump is a tax cheat is the single story way down the page stating Trump says the story is fake. Ha, I did that too this morning-- I went to foxnews to see how they would handle the story. I didn’t even notice the article with the carefully neutral title “Trump responds to New York Times report on his taxes” down the page at first-- I had to go back and look after reading your post. Quite a few reader comments critical to trump in that article in between the “New York Slimes does it again” comments, which was surprising and somewhat encouraging. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4055 "2020-09-28T14:26:32Z")
Not to make light of suicide, but apparently Brad Parscale, former Trump campaign chief, has been hospitalized after threatening suicide: > **[Brad Parscale, Senior Adviser To Trump Campaign, Is Hospitalized After Call...](https://www.npr.org/2020/09/28/917697120/brad-parscale-senior-advisor-to-trump-campaign-is-hospitalized-after-call-to-pol)** > > Brad Parscale's wife told police she was concerned for her husband's safety. In July, Parscale was demoted from his role as the campaign manager of President Trump's reelection effort. I’d read that his firing left him psychologically distraught. I obviously don’t care for anyone in Trump’s orbit, but I hope he recovers at least. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4056 "2020-09-28T14:38:45Z")
The difference in the trump and Biden campaigns’ statements in response to Parscale’s breakdown is entirely unsurprising: > > > AprilDRyan @AprilDRyan ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/4057 "2020-09-28T14:40:50Z")
Re: Trump’s taxes – it’s no big feat to avoid paying income tax when you have no income. Trump is living on credit cards, and the bill is coming due. Re: Fox News – the NY Times has an article today about the guy who runs their “decision desk”…the one who makes the call as to who won a state on Election Day…and therefore, the bulwark against election day insanity. His name is Arnon Mishkin, and he is described as a data-driven nerd who is impervious to Fox internal pressure and answers to no one. It’s the most hopeful thing I’ve read in weeks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=201) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=203)