# 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:** 93
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1850 "2020-08-04T19:11:29Z")
Should _of_ saw it coming. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1851 "2020-08-04T19:53:53Z")
I thought it was intensive porpoises? (or should that be highly focused dolphins?) ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1852 "2020-08-04T20:25:15Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > This is why I am face palming when I hear that Biden wants to debate Trump. > > Why? > > Mind you, I’m not worried that Trump will “win” the actual debate - he won’t. > > But he ‘wins’ by simply creating a spectacle. I totally agree. There is no reason for Biden to do this. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1853 "2020-08-04T20:26:45Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Indeed, we are a lot further down the track than most of us realize. People are looking around and saying, “Well, I don’t see the Gestapo outside. No tanks. No cancelled elections and rounding up of political opponents.” But that’s what happens in the end. Portland might disagree about the Gestapo and tanks at this point… but that’s part of the whole process. It starts in one city and spreads outward. It doesn’t happen all at once. Too many are saying “well, it’s not happening here” not realizing that yes, what happens over there DOES matter because if you don’t do something it will be over here at some point, and sooner than you think. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1854 "2020-08-04T20:38:41Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I thought it was intensive porpoises? > (or should that be highly focused dolphins?) Feral intensive porpoises. Those nearly wild dolphins can get pretty intense! ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1855 "2020-08-04T20:39:41Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Trump’s analysis of the great job he is doing. Why doesn’t any journalist ever ask “Wait…you think China is paying those tariffs?” ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1856 "2020-08-04T20:45:36Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > It’s true that, by many standards, Trumpism is repelling many traditional republicans, including some who voted for him and the party in the last election. This is their vulnerability, particularly if you count on a normal election process. What I and others are pointing out, though, is that they are attacking “normal”. And in doing so, they are attacking the fabric of democracy itself. They may not succeed, but there’s a greater than zero chance that they could, and that thought is chilling. I agree that we have some serious problems and the Republicans are at the heart of it. I’m saying that Trump will not be the beneficiary. Getting re-elected legally is easier than staging a coup. If Trump isn’t capable of doing the former, he certainly is not capable of doing the latter. Trump is incompetent and he is almost certain to fail because of his incompetence. What we have to worry about is the next guy to come along; the guy who will see what a bumbler like Trump was able to get away with and make some competent plans for exploiting that. The guy who will be as immoral as Trump but not as stupid as Trump. I’m not even sure that guy will be a Republican. He won’t really care what party he belongs to so he’ll go where he has the best opportunity. Generally speaking, the Republicans would offer the best opportunity for a criminal politician. But he might figure people don’t suspect the Democrats so he’d have a better chance there. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1857 "2020-08-04T20:51:13Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Why doesn’t any journalist ever ask “Wait…you think China is paying those tariffs?” Because Trump would say, “China is paying the tariffs. It’s on record. You can look it up. You just don’t understand how economics works the way I do. I see the big picture.” Would Trump be right? Of course not. He’s one hundred percent wrong. Would it change anything? No. The people who know Trump is wrong about tariffs, already know that. The people who don’t understand tariffs, wouldn’t understand how Trump is wrong. And the people who believe anything Trump says, would believe Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1858 "2020-08-04T20:52:12Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Why doesn’t any journalist ever ask “Wait…you think China is paying those tariffs?” Someone needs to ask Trump direct questions like this. “Do you think that China directly pays the tariffs that your administration imposed?” “Do you think that testing for Covid is the cause of more disease to be present?” “What exactly do you think the term “Black Lives Matter” means. Give us your definition” ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1859 "2020-08-04T20:58:12Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Someone needs to ask Trump direct questions like this. > > “Do you think that China directly pays the tariffs that your administration imposed?” > > “Do you think that testing for Covid is the cause of more disease to be present?” > > “What exactly do you think the term “Black Lives Matter” means. Give us your definition”- Nah! All the reporters need to stand up at once and begin jeering and shouting, _“You are batshit crazy! You can’t read or think or speak a coherent sentence! You’re not fit to be president of the United States! Besides, you’re ugly and your Momma dresses you funny!”_ And then stomp out in a group. I believe he would have a stroke on the spot. NO ONE ever stands up to him and calls him on his bullshit to his ugly orange face! 😠 We’re still treating him to his face like he’s normal. It only encourages him. We’re a nation of enablers! ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1860 "2020-08-04T20:59:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Because Trump would say, “China is paying the tariffs. It’s on record. You can look it up. You just don’t understand how economics works the way I do. I see the big picture.” > > Would Trump be right? Of course not. He’s one hundred percent wrong. > > Would it change anything? No. The people who know Trump is wrong about tariffs, already know that. The people who don’t understand tariffs, wouldn’t understand how Trump is wrong. And the people who believe anything Trump says, would believe Trump But if this is true, why does any reporter ask him anything? ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1861 "2020-08-04T21:46:00Z")
Not sure which of the many threads this belongs to (or if I missed it in one of the many threads it might have already gotten posted to: > **[House panel asks IG to investigate Trump admin bungling of Philips ventilator...](https://www.medtechdive.com/news/house-panel-finds-trump-admin-bungled-philips-ventilator-deal-overpaid-by/582758/)** > > The Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy on Thursday sent a letter to the acting inspector general requesting a probe into findings that HHS overpaid by $500 million in a contract negotiated with the Dutch medtech.  > [@](#): > > - A House oversight subcommittee’s investigation into an inadequate supply of ventilators in the U.S. at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic found the Trump administration mismanaged contract negotiations with Philips and overpaid for ventilators, wasting more than $500 million in taxpayer funds. > > - The staff [report](https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/Economic%20and%20Consumer%20Policy%20Subcommittee%20Staff%20Report%20on%20Ventilators%20Contract.pdf) from the Democrat-led Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, released Friday, accuses senior administration officials of failing to hold Philips to delivery deadlines under an Obama-era contract and negotiating a new deal that paid the company nearly five times the price set under the previous agreement for nearly identical ventilators. > > - Philips, which cooperated with the panel’s requests for information, denied raising prices to benefit from the COVID-19 crisis and said it is on track with scheduled production and delivery of ventilators. “We do not recognize the conclusions in the subcommittee’s report, and we believe that not all the information that we provided has been reflected in the report,” Philips CEO Frans van Houten said in a [press release](https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20200731-philips-responds-to-congressional-report.html).The report, accusing the Trump administration of “inept contract management and incompetent negotiating” that kept the country in short supply of needed ventilators, follows a review of thousands of emails, invoices and other documents obtained from Philips following an April 15 request for information from the subcommittee. > … There’s more. Hard to tell what the whole picture is. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1862 "2020-08-04T22:06:21Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1 pronounces Yosemite as, first, “Yo-semites” and then as “Yo-seminites”. If he’s [never heard of Pearl Harbor](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pearl-harbor-memorial-tour-john-kelly-stable-genius-2020-1), no one should be surprised he’s never heard (of) Yosemite. Especially his writers. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1863 "2020-08-04T22:08:53Z")
That Axios vid is a wonder to behold. Tremendous!! America is down the bottom which means you’re at the top!! ‘John Lewis didn’t come to my inauguration so he’s a big poopy-head’. I couldn’t watch it all in one sitting, had to go bang my head against the wall during my hiatuses. It helped I gotta say. Fuck, what a miserable excuse for a human being, let alone a sitting bloody POTUS. God help ya America. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1864 "2020-08-04T22:53:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Here’s the interview, if you can stomach it… > > [https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html](https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html) I stomached it. It’s even more of a trainwreck for Trump than the Chris Wallace interview that took place like a week earlier than this one. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/W6XdpDOH1JA/maxresdefault.jpg "President Trump goes one-on-one with Chris Wallace | Full Interview") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6XdpDOH1JA) ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1865 "2020-08-04T22:58:55Z")
How do these folks keep from snapping their own necks, what with all the whipping their heads back and forth? > **[Trump encourages mail voting in key battleground Florida](https://apnews.com/24a6cb221b347efc387f47660c22e403)** > > WASHINGTON (AP) — In an abrupt reversal, President Donald Trump now is encouraging voters in the critical swing state of Florida to vote by mail after months of criticizing the practice, and only days after threatening to sue Nevada over a new... ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1866 "2020-08-04T23:00:53Z")
_“Trump is incompetent and he is almost certain to fail because of his incompetence. What we have to worry about is the next guy to come along; the guy who will see what a bumbler like Trump was able to get away with and make some competent plans for exploiting that. The guy who will be as immoral as Trump but not as stupid as Trump.”_ This. Traitor Trump has opened the door wide to far greater danger. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1867 "2020-08-04T23:22:51Z")
No, but it would be nice if he pre-read the thing before he goes on TV. Pronouncing the word wrong is one thing, but that was clearly the first time he set eyes on that paper. The act of an idiot or an arrogant asshole. Or both. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1868 "2020-08-04T23:27:23Z")
My mistake. But yes, intensive purposes works as well. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1869 "2020-08-04T23:31:20Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > But if this is true, why does any reporter ask him anything? I have no issue with asking Trump hard questions and getting him to go on record either with his lies or his ignorance or his temper tantrums or his inability to form a coherent sentence (asking Trump a question is like spinning a wheel). But I don’t see any point in asking Trump the same question over and over again like the tenth answer is going to be any different than the first one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=92) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=94)