# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making Part Deux (Part 1)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083>\
**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")\
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**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:** [July 10, 2020, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/819 "2020-07-10T23:59:23Z")

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> **[Opinion | This may sound like Trump’s wackiest conspiracy theory. But it’s...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/10/trumps-gop-is-becoming-garish-opera-paranoia/?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-b-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans&itid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-b-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans)**
>
> We have been building toward this for some time, as Republican officeholders and commentators touted conspiracy theories as fact.

> It is a case of being hoisted by his own [petard](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/petard).
> 
> President Trump has convinced his own supporters of the false conspiracy theory that mail-in ballots are [subject to rampant fraud](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1281556745211523072) — so much so that Republicans are, evidently, refusing to vote by mail.
> 
> The Post’s Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey [report](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-attacks-on-mail-voting-are-turning-republicans-off-absentee-ballots/2020/07/07/640b6126-bbd4-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_5)that Democratic voters have embraced mail ballots in far greater numbers than Republicans in primaries this year — alarming Republican strategists who say it could undercut their candidates, including Trump, particularly in states such as Florida and Arizona. In Michigan, Trump supporters actually [burned](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/2020/06/13/trump-supporters-burn-michigan-absentee-ballot-applications/111958524/)absentee-ballot applications.
> 
> This is but one sign of the descent into madness that Trump has caused. Conspiracy theories, long a staple of the president’s, are spreading faster than covid-19 among his supporters, inducing mass delusion. In the most ominous manifestation, he has convinced his supporters that fears of the virus are overblown (a Democratic “hoax”), that mask-wearing is effete political correctness and that the pandemic’s spread merely proves that “[our TESTING is much bigger and better](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1281206354334625793).”
> 
> Now the pandemic is growing unchecked in Trump-backing states, and hospitals are running out of rooms. Tulsa, where Trump insisted on having an indoor rally, has seen a dramatic surge in cases “more than likely” spurred by the rally and protests, the local health department [said](https://www.foxnews.com/us/health-official-trump-rally-likely-source-virus-surge).
> 
> Everywhere, it seems, reality is colliding with Trump’s fantasies.  
> …

In this opera… the question is, is this the end of the whole shebang, or just the end of Act I? If the latter, then Act II will be a blockbuster, ending with the theater going up in flames.

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