# 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:** 459
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9186 "2021-01-20T23:07:21Z")
Only if they’re willing to pay for it in its entirety. In advance. Otherwise, go pound sand, assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9187 "2021-01-20T23:19:15Z")
Perhaps he fears a violent retribution by Qanon Oath Keeping Patriots who feel as if their chains had been yanked. > Is it simply that blatant nepotism put them in positions of influence for the last 4 years? I don’t see how SS protection puts you in a position of influence. Probably just keeps you from getting invited to parties. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9188 "2021-01-20T23:23:47Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Probably just keeps you from getting invited to parties. Especially any with good drugs. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9189 "2021-01-20T23:43:45Z")
I have no idea which thread to put this in, but it’s the Pit, so any is fine. I just talked to my mother, and she is so upset that Trump is gone. We agreed, once again, that we don’t talk politics. I don’t even dare ask her if she really thinks that the election was stolen or not. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9190 "2021-01-21T00:15:54Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > I wouldn’t take much comfort in the fact that Trump hasn’t pardoned his family or himself, yet. He can still do so and, perhaps, already has with the announcement to be made after he has departed on AF One for the last time. He probably wouldn’t want to take the chance that his farewell “crowd” might be diminished by such an announcement. Yes–he doesn’t have to announce the pardons at all. They can just hold on to them until such time as they would need to apply them. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9191 "2021-01-21T00:46:17Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Yes–he doesn’t have to announce the pardons at all. They can just hold on to them until such time as they would need to apply them. [This site says no](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/20/trump-secret-pardons-validity/). > In my assessment, as a scholar of the pardon power, I believe that is the correct view: Although the framers imagined a broad pardon power, secret pardons are untenable, likely inadvisable and perhaps unconstitutional. > > At the end of most presidencies, one of the last things a president does is issue pardons. Will President Trump attempt to pardon himself and his family? (The Washington Post) > > The notion of a secret pardon is an oxymoron. The very concept of a pardon is that it is a public act, granting mercy to the recipient. An ordinary pardon would have no force or meaning if it were kept secret. Moreover, a pardon kept from public view would frustrate an essential element of the otherwise absolute pardon power: public accountability through political consequences. Without knowledge of a president’s pardoning decisions, neither Congress nor the public may effectively check their clemency actions. [Snopes, also](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-secret-presidential-pardons/) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9192 "2021-01-21T01:02:36Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > I don’t see how SS protection puts you in a position of influence. Probably just keeps you from getting invited to parties. Hah haahahahhh. “They want to bring six other people along and are going to check out our house? Ummmm. No. Don’t like them anyway.” ---
**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:** [January 21, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9193 "2021-01-21T01:23:05Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > “They want to bring six other people along and are going to check out our house? Ummmm. No. Don’t like them anyway.” Well, they can come, but they can’t use the bathroom in the house. There’s a gas station down the street. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9194 "2021-01-21T01:24:06Z")
“Well, OK, the six are welcome and have free use of all facilities. You two? The nearest gas station’s a mile that way.” EDIT: _shakes fist at Thelma_ ---
**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:** [January 21, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9195 "2021-01-21T01:25:33Z")
Great minds, honey. 😘 ---
**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:** [January 21, 2021, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9196 "2021-01-21T02:27:36Z")
Pompeo can go fist fuck himself. Worst Sec of State in my lifetime, and maybe ever. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9197 "2021-01-21T03:38:56Z")
The end of the 1957 film _A Face in the Crowd_ seems seems an eerie foreshadowing of the end of Trump’s term: > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Rhodes returns to his penthouse, where he was scheduled to address the nation’s business and political elite, only to find the room empty, except for his friend, Beanie, and a few African American servants, whom he dismisses when they don’t respond to his demands. He discovers the truth during a phone call with Mel and Marcia and threatens suicide, but Marcia only goads him on. When the pair arrive at Rhodes’s home, they find him speaking with an applause machine replacing the people whose support he lost… > > …Before they leave, Mel lays out a prediction of Rhodes’s future: his career is not completely over, and he will likely find further TV work soon, but never again enjoy the same level of popularity and prestige. Me I’m just happy to (I hope) never again have to hear that noisome prick vent out his blowhole. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9198 "2021-01-21T03:49:14Z")
The fact that some doubt whether they will hold doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. Trump is desperate. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9199 "2021-01-21T04:19:24Z")
If they are not in the public record, they do not exist. You can show me that piece of paper that you say you signed while president, but we can find no evidence to support your claim, so it is just a useless piece of paper. Well, maybe not entirely useless, let me take it into “the Reading Room”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9200 "2021-01-21T04:27:20Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > _A Teen’s Guide to Emancipation from Parents_ , by Barron Trump You forgot the co-author: “by Barron Trump and Claudia Conway” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9201 "2021-01-21T05:10:55Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > You forgot the co-author: “by Barron Trump and Claudia Conway” They’d make a great couple! That should make their folks happy. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9202 "2021-01-21T10:11:46Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > ese guys have been a guiding light for so much of my life; of course they come thru again: > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0zeMbLOCY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0zeMbLOCY) > > > [@](#): > > > > Twenty-, twenty-, twenty-, twenty-four hours to go Unfortunately Johnny Ramone was a republican but he’s dead now so let’s enjoy the KKK took my baby away because fuck him, good playing guitar man. He was possibly the more tolerable kind of Republican who was just kind of self centered (he could do his thing fine, didn’t get people who couldn’t) and loved the flashy and fashy side of the US (and German) military. Just a charming selfish fascist… > **[Johnny Ramone once created a list of his 10 favourite Republican Party...](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-ramones-johnny-ramone-favourite-republican-politicians/)** > > Johnny Ramone's 10 favourite Republican politicians including the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Nixon. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9203 "2021-01-21T10:17:36Z")
Ringing ringing the president To find out where my baby went (my baby is civility in politics) Ringing ringing ringing the FBI (the FBI is Nate Silver) To find out if my baby’s alive (yes, Biden was inaugurated) ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9204 "2021-01-21T10:53:59Z")
It’s a crappy UK tabloid but I enjoyed this front page today: [![](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/89B2/production/_116605253_star-nc.png) ](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/89B2/production/_116605253_star-nc.png) ---
**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:** [January 21, 2021, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/9205 "2021-01-21T11:10:02Z")
It’s nice to wake up in the morning and know the country is right where you left it, not lying in broken shards where someone smashed it and left it while you slept. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=458) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=460)