# 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:** 1018
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20345 "2018-05-15T20:26:38Z")
And now, North Korea is threatening to [pull out of the summit with the U.S.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5732893/North-Korea-threatens-CANCEL-Trumps-nuclear-summit.html) (Gee, I wonder where Kim Jong-un got an idea like that…) Hot take time… This might be a brilliant move on Kim Jong-un’s part. Promise that you’ll have a meeting with the U.S., and get Trump and the administration to tout it as an unprecedented act. Have them make this the hallmark of their time in the White House. Then, when it’s all but done, pull out, and issue additional demands. If it falls through, you’ve humiliated the President. If he wants to save face, you can get additional concessions. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20346 "2018-05-15T20:27:24Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > How do these people remember to BREATHE?! There’s a govt program for that. Fortunately, when that one gets chopped, we won’t hear from them anymore. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20347 "2018-05-15T20:30:23Z")
Methinks a viable 2020 ad campaign would be the loser’s face on billboards in these kinds of places with “Beware false prophets - Matthew 7:15.” ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20348 "2018-05-15T20:33:54Z")
From the article: “Of the eight crab processing facilities on Hoopers Island, only four received the visas they requested.”. I wonder what the difference between the facilities was? Perhaps some of the facilities paid for consulting services they thought might be essential to gain insight on how to get the visas? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20349 "2018-05-15T20:35:46Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Methinks a viable 2020 ad campaign would be the loser’s face on billboards in these kinds of places with “Beware false prophets - Matthew 7:15.” Since Loser Donnie has not released hit tax returns – as he promised he would do – I think he is better described by the phrase ‘False Profits’. ---
**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, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20350 "2018-05-15T20:59:08Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > North Korea threatens to cancel talks with the US over US/South Korean joint military exercises. > [http://thehill.com/policy/international/387800-north-korea-threatens-to-cancel-meeting-with-trump-report?\_\_twitter\_impression=true](http://thehill.com/policy/international/387800-north-korea-threatens-to-cancel-meeting-with-trump-report?__twitter_impression=true) Those Deep State plotters (in the Pentagon) are interfering with Trump again… ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20351 "2018-05-15T21:46:34Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > From the article: “Of the eight crab processing facilities on Hoopers Island, only four received the visas they requested.”. > > I wonder what the difference between the facilities was? Perhaps some of the facilities paid for consulting services they thought might be essential to gain insight on how to get the visas? Melanin content, he said pessimistically. [/thirdperson] ---
**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 16, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20352 "2018-05-16T03:38:39Z")
North Korea just released their English-language statement threatening to pull out of the summit. Pretty devastating lines in this one: “We shed light on the quality of Bolton in the past, and do not hide our repugnance towards him.” " if president Trump follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, he will be regarded as more tragic and unsuccessful of any of his predecessors." Well, OK then! > ---
**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:** [May 16, 2018, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20353 "2018-05-16T03:51:53Z")
I think this part is important: > [@](#): > > It is a ridiculous comedy to see that the Trump administration, claiming to take a different road from the previous administrations, still clings to the outdated policy on the DPRK - **a policy pursued by previous administrations at the time when the DPRK was at the stage of nuclear development**. (bolding mine) The DPRK expects to be treated as equals: they have nuclear weapons. This goes along with how I interpret Mr. Kim’s sudden willingness to talk: he has nukes; he can no longer be treated as a “lesser” leader. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20354 "2018-05-16T06:31:37Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Trump described Melania today as “in good spirits”. If true, it’s probably for the first time in 3 years. Ah, they gave her the good happy pills! > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The US is planning on warehousing the children of undocumented aliens on military bases, separated from their parents. > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-preparing-to-shelter-migrant-children-on-military-bases/2018/05/15/f8103356-584e-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-preparing-to-shelter-migrant-children-on-military-bases/2018/05/15/f8103356-584e-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html)? Maybe that way they’ll stop [losing them](http://time.com/5256734/government-missing-migrant-children/). ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20355 "2018-05-16T11:06:29Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Maybe that way they’ll stop [losing them](http://time.com/5256734/government-missing-migrant-children/). And as they turn 18, we can just induct them straight into the military and save all that recruiting money! Plus, nobody will care if it’s little brown kids getting killed overseas in the latest idiotic adventure. And when they get out, we’ll deport them and not have to pay their VA benefits. It’s a WIN, WIN, WIN! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20356 "2018-05-16T11:13:20Z")
Trump’s pick for head of the CDC apparently thought that [AIDS is “God’s Judgment” against teh gayz](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/05/trumps-new-cdc-director-aids-is-gods-judgment-against-gays/): > [@](#): > > In the 1980s Redfield worked closely with W. Shepherd Smith, Jr. and his Christian organization, Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy, or ASAP. The group maintained that AIDS was “God’s judgment” against homosexuals, spread in an America weakened by single-parent households and loss of family values. > > Redfield wrote the introduction to a 1990 book, “Christians in the Age of AIDS,” co-written by Smith, in which he denounced distribution of sterile needles to drug users and condoms to sexually active adults, and described anti-discrimination programs as the efforts of “false prophets.” > > In the early 1990’s, ASAP and Redfield also backed H.R. 2788, a House bill sponsored by deeply conservative Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-California). It would have subjected people with HIV to testing, loss of professional licenses and would have effectively quarantined them. (The bill died in Congress.) In the 2000s, Redfield was a top advocate for the so-called “ABCs of AIDS” in Africa, pressing to prevent HIV infection through sexual abstinence, monogamy and the use of condoms only as a last resort. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20357 "2018-05-16T11:29:47Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > It seems like nobody is connecting this particular news item with the ones about the 1,500 migrant children who were separated from their parents and put in foster homes and LOST. Just up and disappeared. Nobody know what happened to them. Vanished. Has anyone checked the basement of that pizza place in DC? Hillary might have taken them. ---
**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 16, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20358 "2018-05-16T12:11:22Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > It seems like nobody is connecting this particular news item with the ones about the 1,500 migrant children who were separated from their parents and put in foster homes and LOST. Just up and disappeared. Nobody know what happened to them. Vanished. > > It doesn’t seem to bode well for the proposed expansion of the program. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Has anyone checked the basement of that pizza place in DC? Hillary might have taken them. Soylent Brown. ---
**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:** [May 16, 2018, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20359 "2018-05-16T12:12:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > North Korea just released their English-language statement threatening to pull out of the summit. Pretty devastating lines in this one: > > “We shed light on the quality of Bolton in the past, and do not hide our repugnance towards him.” > > " if president Trump follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, he will be regarded as more tragic and unsuccessful of any of his predecessors." > > Well, OK then! > > [x.com](https://twitter.com/JChengWSJ/status/996586112222052353?s=19) Thump thought Kim liked him and was his new bestie. If Kim calls him a loser and decides to uninvite him to the Grownups Table… _uh-oh_. Will thump turn on his heel in a huff and walk away hurling insults over his shoulder (“Can’t trust those Orientals!”) or will he get on his knees and suck harder? I predict a big ol’ temper tantrum. Like I said before, Kim is playing him like a fiddle. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20360 "2018-05-16T13:36:36Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Thump thought Kim liked him and was his new bestie. If Kim calls him a loser and decides to uninvite him to the Grownups Table… _uh-oh_. Will thump turn on his heel in a huff and walk away hurling insults over his shoulder (“Can’t trust those Orientals!”) or will he get on his knees and suck harder? I predict a big ol’ temper tantrum. > > Like I said before, Kim is playing him like a fiddle. Who knew international diplomacy was so hard?? ---
**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 16, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20361 "2018-05-16T13:48:52Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Thump thought Kim liked him and was his new bestie. If Kim calls him a loser and decides to uninvite him to the Grownups Table… _uh-oh_. Will thump turn on his heel in a huff and walk away hurling insults over his shoulder (“Can’t trust those Orientals!”) or will he get on his knees and suck harder? I predict a big ol’ temper tantrum. > > Like I said before, Kim is playing him like a fiddle. Seeing how soon this happened after Kim’s second meeting with Xi, it’s like I said before: Xi is teaching Kim how to play Trump. ---
**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 16, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20362 "2018-05-16T13:57:18Z")
> [@Calatin](#): > > And now, North Korea is threatening to [pull out of the summit with the U.S.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5732893/North-Korea-threatens-CANCEL-Trumps-nuclear-summit.html) (Gee, I wonder where Kim Jong-un got an idea like that…) > > Hot take time… > > This might be a brilliant move on Kim Jong-un’s part. > > Promise that you’ll have a meeting with the U.S., and get Trump and the administration to tout it as an unprecedented act. Have them make this the hallmark of their time in the White House. > > Then, when it’s all but done, pull out, and issue additional demands. > > If it falls through, you’ve humiliated the President. If he wants to save face, you can get additional concessions. It’s as if Charles Schultz had done a two-week series of Charlie Brown talking about how desperate he was to finally kick the football leading up to the latest iteration of the gag where Lucy pulls it away. Of course, it wasn’t Schultz’s style to be either that mean or that lamely anticlimactic, so this example serves as yet another example of how Trump is stranger than fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20363 "2018-05-16T14:15:11Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Who knew international diplomacy was so hard?? Once again, I’m reminded of [Yudkowsky’s take on things](https://nothingismere.com/2016/11/07/trump-and-the-world-order/), which seems more and more valid by the day. One key excerpt: I once played a four-hour live simulation/game called the National Security Decision-Making Game, which was run by various people who were ex-whatevers. There were around 80 of us simulating just 3 different countries, with myself trying to play the Secretary of Defense of the US. Thinking myself probably above-average intelligence for the room, I’d originally asked for a position that involved intrigue; I was given the title for Director of National Intelligence. But somebody who’d played the game before said he really wanted to be DNI, so I traded it for his Secretary of Defense position. Which I’m glad happened, because my ambitions rapidly went from world optimization to “Understand what is happening immediately around the Department of Defense.” By the end of NSDM, I left with a suddenly increased respect for any administration that gets to the end of 4 years without nuclear weapons being used. We did not do that well in our NSDM session. I left with a greatly increased appreciation of the real skill and competence possessed by the high-level bureaucrats like the Secretary of Defense who keep everything from toppling over, and who understand what the sternly worded diplomatic notes mean. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/20364 "2018-05-16T14:30:07Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Seeing how soon this happened after Kim’s second meeting with Xi, it’s like I said before: Xi is teaching Kim how to play Trump. So many people miss this. The world is playing our moron and he’s the only one who doesn’t see it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1017) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1019)