# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 7, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070 "2016-12-07T00:25:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1016
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20305 "2018-05-14T19:55:51Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Melania has been hospitalized at Walter Reed for a kidney condition. > [https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html) I wish her a full and speedy recovery. And I’m sure Donald is at her bedside every moment, prostrate with grief. ---
**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:** [May 14, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20306 "2018-05-14T20:00:18Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I wish her a full and speedy recovery. > > And I’m sure Donald is at her bedside every moment, prostrate with grief. I doubt he has a prostrate. Or ever been examined for one. I’m sure he will appreciate cards and letters to help him get through this. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20307 "2018-05-14T20:21:45Z")
When you’re all asshole, a prostate check is easier. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20308 "2018-05-14T23:02:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Melania has been hospitalized at Walter Reed for a kidney condition. > [https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html) Maybe I’m just overly cynical of the Trump family, but minus any indication that Melania had this operation already planned, but I’m a bit suspicious that she’d be in the hospital for a kidney related something, the day after Mother’s Day. This is like, exactly the cover story you would put out there if she tried to OD because her husband doesn’t appreciate her place as the mother of his child (and all the other hell going on in the White House). For her sake, I hope that’s not the case, but if I was to give odds, I’d be hard pressed to give a low probability for this potential. My gut feeling is more in the 50/50 range. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20309 "2018-05-15T03:04:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Melania has been hospitalized at Walter Reed for a kidney condition. > [https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html) Sounds serious; she has asked that Trump not attend her funeral. ETA: Correction, the control room is telling me that she actually made that request several years ago. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20310 "2018-05-15T03:25:14Z")
So, over the weekend Trump tweeted about ‘helping ZTE’, the Chinese telecom firm sanctioned for selling to Iran. Seemed odd to many, including those on the right. Today, news [breaks](http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2145808/trump-indonesia-project-latest-stop-chinas-belt-and-road) that on Friday, a Trump branded and managed project in Indonesia received $500 million in Chinese loans. Those events couldn’t possibly be connected, could they? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20311 "2018-05-15T05:36:22Z")
Nope. Who knew negotiating with the Chinese would be so difficult? After trying to put the 5th largest mobile phone company in the world out of business, China came back with bankrupting Boeing, American farmers and vintners, and blocking Qualcomm’s chipmaker takeover. And that’s just the very beginning. Trump said a trade war must be, and China dusted off a response decades in the making. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20312 "2018-05-15T08:16:10Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Maybe I’m just overly cynical of the Trump family, but minus any indication that Melania had this operation already planned, but I’m a bit suspicious that she’d be in the hospital for a kidney related something, the day after Mother’s Day. This is like, exactly the cover story you would put out there if she tried to OD because her husband doesn’t appreciate her place as the mother of his child (and all the other hell going on in the White House). > > For her sake, I hope that’s not the case, but if I was to give odds, I’d be hard pressed to give a low probability for this potential. My gut feeling is more in the 50/50 range. If Melania was the sort to self-harm when her partner did something insensitive, I doubt she’d have lasted the first year of being married to Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20313 "2018-05-15T09:11:06Z")
[Unbelievable](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/yes-ivanka-trump-said-united-175158479.html). “United States **on** America”? One of my classmates studied like you wouldn’t believe for her citizenship test and definitely knows that’s not the country’s name. I could just maybe give Trump’s immigrant wife a pass on this, but his American-born daughter? Unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20314 "2018-05-15T09:13:18Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The White House released a transcript of Jared Kushner’s comments at the opening of the new Embassy in Jerusalem, editing out his comments that said, "As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution.” Is that his…\*final \*word on the matter? ---
**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:** [May 15, 2018, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20315 "2018-05-15T10:04:52Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > So, over the weekend Trump tweeted about ‘helping ZTE’, the Chinese telecom firm sanctioned for selling to Iran. Seemed odd to many, including those on the right. > > Today, news [breaks](http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2145808/trump-indonesia-project-latest-stop-chinas-belt-and-road) that on Friday, a Trump branded and managed project in Indonesia received $500 million in Chinese loans. > > Those events couldn’t possibly be connected, could they? I figured that the Chinese threatened to tank the Korea summit and thereby embarrassingly end his attempt to impersonate a leader. ---
**Author:** ![SaneBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SaneBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaneBill)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20316 "2018-05-15T10:40:01Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Melania has been hospitalized at Walter Reed for a kidney condition. > [https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/melania-trump-surgery/index.html) And we all know what the rumour would be if this was under fifty year old wife of ANY Democrat. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20317 "2018-05-15T11:42:57Z")
Illuminate me, Bill. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20318 "2018-05-15T12:15:25Z")
I won’t say it but it rhymes with shmashmortion. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20319 "2018-05-15T12:27:51Z")
I thought those were ambulatory procedures, usually. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2018, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20320 "2018-05-15T12:34:38Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I thought those were ambulatory procedures, usually. [deadpan] No, you still have to lie still for a while. [/deadpan] ---
**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:** [May 15, 2018, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20321 "2018-05-15T12:47:00Z")
“A mere 72 hours after the Chinese government agreed to put a half-billion dollars into an Indonesian project that will personally enrich Donald Trump, the president ordered a bailout for a Chinese-government-owned cellphone maker.” [https://t.co/FLBLV7PyKd](https://t.co/FLBLV7PyKd) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20322 "2018-05-15T13:31:55Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > “A mere 72 hours after the Chinese government agreed to put a half-billion dollars into an Indonesian project that will personally enrich Donald Trump, the president ordered a bailout for a Chinese-government-owned cellphone maker.” > > [http://huffp.st/gLtC7Ko](https://t.co/FLBLV7PyKd) It’s like Trump is the main character in an evil parallel universe’s version of _The Distinguished Gentleman_. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20323 "2018-05-15T13:45:15Z")
Hang onto your hats! It’s Infrastructure Week! AGAIN! > **[Opinion: This Is Not a Drill. It’s Actually Infrastructure Week - Roll Call](https://rollcall.com/2018/05/14/opinion-this-is-not-a-drill-its-actually-infrastructure-week/)** > > Starting today, it’s officially Infrastructure Week — as in the annual bipartisan event, not a themed White House push. Remember last year, when optimism was high that Congress and President Donald Trump would soon begin work on a comprehensive... ---
**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:** [May 15, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20324 "2018-05-15T15:06:52Z")
Ignorance is bliss, and [We want you to be happy](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/14/emails-white-house-interfered-with-science-study-536950). \*Scott Pruitt’s EPA and the White House sought to block publication of a federal health study on a nationwide water-contamination crisis, after one Trump administration aide warned it would cause a “public relations nightmare” … The study would show that the chemicals endanger human health at a far lower level than EPA has previously called safe, according to the emails. “The public, media, and Congressional reaction to these numbers is going to be huge,” one unidentified White House aide said in an email … “The impact … is going to be extremely painful. We (DoD and EPA) cannot seem to get (the HHS Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) to realize the potential public relations nightmare this is going to be.” More than three months later, the draft study remains unpublished, and the HHS unit says it has no scheduled date to release it for public comment.\* The whole article is disturbing, but not lacking irony, _In his year leading EPA, he has overhauled several scientific advisory panels to include more industry representatives and recently ordered limits on the kinds of scientific studies the agency will consider on the health effects of pollution. On the other hand, Pruitt has **also called water pollution one of his signature priorities**._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1015) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1017)