# 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:** 34
**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:** [July 7, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/667 "2020-07-07T22:49:04Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > It’s personal for KC given her husband’s very public opposition to Trump and more recently her daughter’s negative comments about Trump. I was also referring to Kayleigh Mc-Inane-y declaring the book as bullshit without even seeing it. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/668 "2020-07-07T22:57:10Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [The Daily Beast – 7 Jul 20](https://www.thedailybeast.com/kellyanne-conway-loses-it-over-mary-trump-book-on-fox-news) > > ### [Kellyanne Conway Loses It Over Mary Trump Book on Fox News] > > “I believe family matters should be family matters,” the White House counselor said, seeming to threaten members of the media “who think people’s families are their business.” Maybe we could have some non-partisan third party - like the Ukrainian government - launch an investigation. That way, nobody here in America would be involving family members in politics. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/669 "2020-07-08T00:22:59Z")
Little\_Nemo " > Maybe we could have some non-partisan third party - like the Ukrainian government - launch an investigation. That way, nobody here in America would be involving family members in politics" Am I allowed to say +1? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/670 "2020-07-08T00:27:48Z")
“None of us really anticipated the amount of community spread that began in really our 18-to-35-year-old age group,” Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, said in a brief appearance on an Atlantic Council panel". I can hear Trump saying, “no one had ever heard of community spread before”. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/671 "2020-07-08T00:50:09Z")
Yeah…. I don’t like her. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/672 "2020-07-08T00:59:30Z")
Imagine a long distinguished career as a reputable medical professional and the only thing you’ll be remembered for is being asked by Trump to look into internal disinfectant cleaning or getting a UV light inside. And nodding, yes. Because what else do you say to an idiot who occupies the oval office ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/673 "2020-07-08T01:20:21Z")
[Southeast Christian](https://www.southeastchristian.org/) has a total of NINE campuses in the Louisville, KY area, with plans for a tenth. Look in the “locations” tab for a list. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/674 "2020-07-08T01:42:50Z")
Remember all of those night time TV hosts whose rants ‘destroyed’ Trump back in late 2016? Or how John Oliver pointing out that Trump’s real family name was Drumpf basically ended his run at becoming President? That’s how effective any ads that are aimed at getting under his skin are going to be. We have almost four years of proof that anything that upsets Trump doesn’t lead to him doing something that hurts him in the eys of his supporters. It leads to him doing something that hurts Americans. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/675 "2020-07-08T01:49:22Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > It’s personal for KC given her husband’s very public opposition to Trump and more recently her daughter’s negative comments about Trump. I’m sure her daughter is thinking about writing a book now. Later chapters will deal with her mom’s hospitalization after a dramatic mental breakdown. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/676 "2020-07-08T01:51:57Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > I can hear Trump saying, “no one had ever heard of community spread before”. He’d probably think it’s an orgy. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/677 "2020-07-08T02:00:48Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > He didn’t initially go to Penn; he started out at Fordham in '64, then transferred to the Wharton business school at Penn in '66 or thereabouts. > > Regardless, he (or his proxy) would have been taking the SAT in '63 or '64, and I suspect that, short of that proxy coming out of the woodwork all this time later, and saying, “Yes, I took that SAT for him, and I will swear to such under oath” there’s unlikely to be any evidence beyond hearsay. In watching Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC tonight, where she read excerpts from Mary Trump’s book, I stand corrected. In the book, Mary relates that Donald “took” the SAT while at Fordham, so that he could have a counterpoint to his unimpressive grades at Fordham as he applied to transfer to Wharton (so, it probably would have been early '66). She also names the friend of Trump’s who she says took the test for him, Joe Shapiro. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/678 "2020-07-08T03:27:28Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Imagine a long distinguished career as a reputable medical professional and the only thing you’ll be remembered for is being asked by Trump to look into internal disinfectant cleaning or getting a UV light inside. And nodding, yes [That isn’t what happened](https://youtu.be/lFKQGGf1iiI?t=47) (youtube) Birx _maybe_ nods when Trump is talking vaguely about the effect of ultraviolet light, but it’s a very subtle nod if so. But when he’s talking about light or bleach _in the body_, she can’t even looks at him, and if I had to classify her expression, it’s one of despair. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/679 "2020-07-08T03:35:56Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Imagine a long distinguished career as a reputable medical professional and the only thing you’ll be remembered for is being asked by Trump to look into internal disinfectant cleaning or getting a UV light inside. And nodding, yes > [@Mijin](#): > > [That isn’t what happened](https://youtu.be/lFKQGGf1iiI?t=47) (youtube) > Birx _maybe_ nods when Trump is talking vaguely about the effect of ultraviolet light, but it’s a very subtle nod if so. But when he’s talking about light or bleach _in the body_ , she can’t even looks at him, and if I had to classify her expression, it’s one of despair. It’s the look of someone reflecting on a long distinguished career as a reputable medical professional and wondering how it came to this. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/680 "2020-07-08T03:39:32Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Because what else do you say to an idiot who occupies the oval office To be honest, 3.5 years into this clusterfuck, I’m surprised no one has publicly called him an idiot to his face. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2020, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/681 "2020-07-08T03:52:53Z")
Ken Cuccinelli, DHS secretary, says the rule requiring foreign students to go home if they don’t have classes to attend is intended to force schools to hold physical classes. > **[Cuccinelli says rule forcing international students to return home will...](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/506248-cuccinelli-says-rule-forcing-international-students-to-return-home/)** > > Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli said Tuesday that the department’s provision requiring international students to take in-person classes or return home for the fall… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/682 "2020-07-08T06:41:36Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Regardless, he (or his proxy) would have been taking the SAT in '63 or '64, and I suspect that, short of that proxy coming out of the woodwork all this time later, and saying, “Yes, I took that SAT for him, and I will swear to such under oath” there’s unlikely to be any evidence beyond hearsay. > > (And, given that that was 56 or 57 years ago, there’s a pretty good chance that said proxy is now deceased.) > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > In the book, Mary relates that Donald “took” the SAT while at Fordham, so that he could have a counterpoint to his unimpressive grades at Fordham as he applied to transfer to Wharton (so, it probably would have been early '66). She also names the friend of Trump’s who she says took the test for him, Joe Shapiro. (Bold added.) So he is! Just came across this: [Joe Shapiro — the man who took Trump’s SATs for him](https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/joe-shapiro-the-man-who-took-trumps-sats-for-him/), Sarah K. Burris, Raw Story, July 7, 2020: > [@](#): > > “To hedge his bets he enlisted Joe Shapiro, a smart kid with a reputation for being a good test taker, to take his SATs for him. That was much easier to pull off in the days before photo IDs and computerized records. Donald, who never lacked for funds, paid his buddy well,” Mary Trump’s book details. > > According to a 1980 profile in New York Magazine, Shapiro noted Trump was “bored” at Wharton. > > [Shapiro passed away in 1999 at the age of 52](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/25/classified/paid-notice-deaths-shapiro-joe.html) and the New York Times biography of him describes his sterling educational career that is far from the likes of Trump’s lies of being a “very stable genius.” He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Penn and went on to get a law degree from Harvard with honors. Oh, and this: > [@](#): > > Since the news that Shapiro took Trump’s SATs, NPR correspondent Joe Shapiro has been fielding questions. He is not the Shapiro who took the SATs for Trump, though his responses to questions about it have been amusing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/683 "2020-07-08T12:27:32Z")
My point stands. It’s what we remember most about her and there is a video record to show it. Which isn’t to say she’s to blame for what comes out of that assclown’s mouth. It’s that with very few exceptions, everything and everyone he touches, is soiled by association. Birx does not appear to be that exception. I imagine she thinks it’s beneath her to dignify that comment with a response. She may think it too late to do so. Either way, it’s what the public will remember most about her. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/684 "2020-07-08T13:00:15Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > My point stands. It’s what we remember most about her and there is a video record to show it. To show what? She didn’t do the thing you accused her of. Let’s start with an acknowledgment of that before shifting the point. In terms of the new point, it’s debateable, I think I’d probably cut her a little slack personally. The president talks a hell of a lot of shit, and to even get to be in that room, you have to have cultivated a perfect mind palace where you can ignore what’s going on and give little away with your expression. And pick your battles carefully. It would take a lot to snap out of the mind palace in that instant and immediately insert yourself into world politics dramatically. If it were me, I would probably have done a few interviews afterwards where I explained just how wrong the president was, how much of an idiot he is, of course at the same time as resigning. But I can understand her decision to just criticize the advice while steering clear of criticizing trump himself, perhaps justifying it to herself that it’s better for her to be in that seat than a true loyalist. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/685 "2020-07-08T13:10:57Z")
I don’t know what you think I’m accusing her of but you need to climb down off that chair before you hurt yourself. The video shows her not actively disagreeing but demurring from doing so. Her nod was meant not in agreement with that that orange assclown was asking her to do but a stunned disbelief in what was being asked of her and just wanting to get past the moment. I am sympathetic to her. However, she could have taken a stronger stance later. She chose instead to (I assume) not dignify it with further comment. It’s the right thing to do under most circumstances and goes to her quality of character. However, as you say, it would serve her and in some sense her legacy, to have pushed back. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/686 "2020-07-08T14:36:51Z")
> Either way, it’s what the public will remember most about her. Well, it’s what the media will remember most about her (which ultimately becomes much the same). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=35)