# 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:** 1238
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24745 "2018-08-30T18:18:39Z")
Was anyone else expecting at least one more big piece of news from the Mueller investigation this week, before the unofficial moratorium starts on Labor Day? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24746 "2018-08-30T18:37:04Z")
We won’t know until he does it, and he will do it in his own sweet time. He doesn’t keep his cards close to his vest, he has them stapled to his tits. ---
**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:** [August 30, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24747 "2018-08-30T18:52:31Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > It says in your link that the decision had already been made, but that they may have lied about whether or not there was a discussion with Trump (after the decision had already been made). I.e., he would probably have tried to get them to keep it where it was, corruptly, except that they already had decided to do so anyways. The determination that staying put in downtown would be cheaper didn’t account for selling the land. I think what was quashed was redoing that calculation. But as with most things, the coverup is worse than the crime. By getting personally involved and telling people to lie about his involvement shows he had a conflict of interest and corrupt intent _even when he didn’t need it to get his way_. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24748 "2018-08-30T19:00:08Z")
[Trump just canceled a raise for federal workers](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/index.html). No word on who exactly this impacts. Is it Congress? Rank and File? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24749 "2018-08-30T19:05:24Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > [Trump just canceled a raise for federal workers](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/index.html). No word on who exactly this impacts. Is it Congress? Rank and File? Rank and File. The President (until we actually get a full-fledged Duce) can’t cancel Congressional raises. I do wonder why he feels the economic crisis is so severe that he has to cancel pay raises, if it’s do as great as he says it is. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24750 "2018-08-30T19:15:13Z")
Now surely all those Federal employees will rush out in November and vote Republican, thanking trump for taking firm action to save the economy. ---
**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 30, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24751 "2018-08-30T19:16:49Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Now surely all those Federal employees will rush out in November and vote Republican, thanking trump for taking firm action to save the economy. Federal employees that vote for a party that wants to cut taxes are morons anyway, so they probably WILL do exactly as you speculate. ---
**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:** [August 30, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24752 "2018-08-30T19:17:09Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Rank and File. The President (until we actually get a full-fledged Duce) can’t cancel Congressional raises. > > I do wonder why he feels the economic crisis is so severe that he has to cancel pay raises, if it’s do as great as he says it is. It’s the Republican reflexive thought of “If he gets a dollar, I won’t.” ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24753 "2018-08-30T19:26:49Z")
Trump found $6-billion to bail out the farmers he fucked over, I’m sure he can dig around and find some loose change for government workers. ---
**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:** [August 30, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24754 "2018-08-30T19:31:06Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Rank and File. The President (until we actually get a full-fledged Duce) can’t cancel Congressional raises. > > I do wonder why he feels the economic crisis is so severe that he has to cancel pay raises, if it’s do as great as he says it is. One of the many needed reforms is to require that the President can’t just say there’s an “economic crisis” any old way – it should be required to be stated in the President’s annual report to Congress (aka the “State of the Union” address) in a stipulated weasel-free phrasing suitable for attack-ad clips (e.g. “Unfortunately, the economy has seriously faltered under our administration”) so that it will be too politically painful to use except in cases where genuine need trumps, so to speak, the usual analysis (which is done every year to generate a pay adjustment that automagically goes into effect unless overridden). In any case, Democrats really ought to add “Never mind what he tweets – Trump sent Congress a letter saying that the economy is really in a serious emergency” to their messaging. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24755 "2018-08-30T19:31:18Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > [Trump just canceled a raise for federal workers](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/index.html). No word on who exactly this impacts. Is it Congress? Rank and File? So this will impact ordinary public servants the most? Well, that figures. Trump is just continuing his basic “stick-it-to-the-people” routine, then. Such a jackass! ---
**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:** [August 30, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24756 "2018-08-30T19:36:25Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Was anyone else expecting at least one more big piece of news from the Mueller investigation this week, before the unofficial moratorium starts on Labor Day? I don’t really get this “unofficial moratorium” anyway. We have two years and two months until the person wh is under investigation faces an election. I don’t see why this moratorium would apply to the investigation of someone that’s not up for re-election ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24757 "2018-08-30T19:40:04Z")
It’s not like the Republicans will stick to a moratorium. They’ll be parroting bullshit from the shitgibbon and Fox right through Election Day. If Mueller can’t speak, neither can the shitgibbon. ---
**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:** [August 30, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24758 "2018-08-30T19:40:04Z")
For the record, Obama also didn’t give Fed workers a raise either from 2011-2013 (with Congressional approval, of course, as it is Congress who passes the budget.) > **[Obama's Track Record on Federal Pay and Benefits](https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2017/01/obamas-track-record-federal-pay-and-benefits/134485/)** > > The economic recession, Congress and the president’s desire to make government a model employer significantly affected employee compensation and other benefits over the past eight years. Of course, Federal tax receipts were lower during that period than they were in 2008, so if the gov’t were a business, one would say a wage freeze was necessary for the business to survive. But it is not, and so it really wasn’t. > **[U.S. Federal Government Tax Revenue](https://www.thebalancemoney.com/current-u-s-federal-government-tax-revenue-3305762)** > > The federal government generates tax revenue through a variety of sources, including income and corporate taxes. Learn how much tax revenue the U.S. generates. This freeze, however, is horrible on the face of it and when you look into the numbers/causes. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24759 "2018-08-30T20:03:55Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > [Trump just canceled a raise for federal workers](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-cancels-federal-employee-pay-raises/index.html). No word on who exactly this impacts. Is it Congress? Rank and File? 2.1% ---
**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 30, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24760 "2018-08-30T20:47:16Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Trump found $6-billion to bail out the farmers he fucked over, I’m sure he can dig around and find some loose change for government workers. This. He cancelled a raise for federal workers, so that when he backtracks and restores the raises he can take credit and proclaim “what a good boy am I.” We’ve seen this pattern over and over. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24761 "2018-08-30T21:47:27Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This. He cancelled a raise for federal workers, so that when he backtracks and restores the raises he can take credit and proclaim “what a good boy am I.” We’ve seen this pattern over and over. Has he done that before? At least the guys will eventually get their 2% raise. I wonder if he will also restore the cost of living raise, called a “locality something or other raise”. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24762 "2018-08-30T22:34:49Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > The interesting thing about **FavreCo** isn’t his posts, but his posting pattern. If anybody were paid to come to the SDMB as a troll, then it would be **FavreCo**. That being said I think **FavreCo** is just a garden variety troll/sock. Worth noting: people paid to post while posing as Americans often choose account names that reference American heroes. For example, legendary quarterback Brett Favre. Not that such a choice is _proof_ that the poster is only pretending to be an American, of course. > [@Morgyn](#): > > …Meantime, someone in the Trump administration saw fit to respond to an FOIA request on a Democratic candidate in Virginia [by immediately releasing her _ **unredacted** _](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/ex-cia-officer-running-for-congress-says-gop-obtained-her-unredacted-personnel-file-with-sensitive-information/2018/08/29/453b4878-ab97-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.9bb84b59a4dd) SF-86 to Paul Ryan’s Super-PAC. Said PAC is apparently shopping the information around. Never mind that it is vanishingly rare to release the SF-86, doing so unredacted means that things like her SSN are now available to the public. > > Meantime, her campaign filed an FOIA last December for her own employment records, which they still have not received. The FOIA filed by the Republicans was responded to within 3 weeks. > I doubt this is happenstance. ‘If you dare to run against the Dear Leader, you WILL be doxxed.’ ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24763 "2018-08-30T22:36:02Z")
Cancelling workers’ raises just in time for Labor Day! To hammer home to us (as if we didn’t already know) what Trump thinks of the working man. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/24764 "2018-08-30T22:55:59Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > …Worth noting: people paid to post while posing as Americans often choose account names that reference American heroes. For example, legendary quarterback Brett Favre… I’ll keep an eye peeled for a user name of Benedict Arnold. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1237) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1239)