# 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:** 1255
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25085 "2018-09-06T22:51:20Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > I wonder if any of this will impact fears of the so-called Deep State? Looks like Trump has created an actual, for real, deep state. Suggestion from another board for the OpEd writer’s codename: Derpthroat. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25086 "2018-09-06T22:55:03Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > Looks like Trump has created an actual, for real, deep state. > > Suggestion from another board for the OpEd writer’s codename: Derpthroat. Yeah, I thought the whole “deep state” thing involved minor but important career bureaucrats, not highly placed, very sensitively positioned people that the PRESIDENT HIMSELF appointed. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25087 "2018-09-06T22:55:18Z")
> [@duality72](#): > > But the Times didn’t say Lodestar could or could not be fired, only that said official could lose their job. If the editorial were definitively linked to Pence, he could very well be impeached and lose his job. It’s a thin layer of plausibility, but just enough to make the statement true, if a bit misleading (a feature, not a bug, in this case). They didn’t specifically say Lodestar would lose their job - only that their job would be “jeopardized”. Loser Donald can’t fire Pence, but he could effectively shut him completely out of government since the VP has no Constitutional duties or powers other than casting a tiebreaking vote in the Senate. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25088 "2018-09-06T22:57:57Z")
**ThelmLou** is convinced the author is VeepThroat. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25089 "2018-09-06T23:00:07Z")
The next anonymous NYT editorial is going to consist entirely of sentence fragments, misspellings, random capitalizations and even randomer punctuation. It will be a marvelous account of bigly things and praise for Trump and a promise to have Mexico fund a border wall. And a reminder that the NYT is failing. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25090 "2018-09-06T23:02:10Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > The next anonymous NYT editorial is going to consist entirely of sentence fragments, misspellings, random capitalizations and even randomer punctuation. It will be a marvelous account of bigly things and praise for Trump and a promise to have Mexico fund a border wall. > And a reminder that the NYT is failing. Anonymous? No, it’ll be written by John Miller. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25091 "2018-09-06T23:06:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Wow! It’s said that Trump supporters won’t turn against him unless they find Trump in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. What would it take for you? A dead pre-teen boy? That quote is (more or less) from Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana at the time. He did get convicted of extortion in 2001. So there is hope. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25092 "2018-09-06T23:11:21Z")
I don’t think it can count as Deep State when it’s people you’re responsible for hiring. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2018, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25093 "2018-09-06T23:46:16Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > … Now the the president knows that he has been foiled in this way, what are the chances that he will know put every effort to make sure that the al-Assad assassination and pulling out of the Korean trade deal is a top priority just to prove that his staff can’t get away from it. … > [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > But he does seem to have the ability to hold grudges and act out of spite. So I thought that there was a chance of his saying “You think you can stop me, well let me show you!” I agree–Trump can hold on to grudges for years, which requires being able to retain the information that someone has wronged him. A goldfish wouldn’t be able to do that. So, yeah: he’ll prioritize sticking it to the Korean trade deal and… well, al-Assad had better find himself a deep, deep bunker. > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Easily blunted if you hide his phone, it seems. I love the image of Trump being unable to find a phone. (They’d have to hide their own phones, too, and the phones of everyone on the White House premises, to make this work. They’d have to stop any visitors and hide their phones, stop all deliveries, and even stop US mail from entering the White House.) He’d be reduced to getting into a limo and ordering the driver to take him to Walmart so he could buy a phone. ---
**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:** [September 7, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25094 "2018-09-07T00:08:15Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > **ThelmLou** is convinced the author is VeepThroat. Clever, but if you’re going to misquote me, at least spell my name right. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25095 "2018-09-07T00:22:08Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > It won’t help them. There are too many **derplorables** who will, at a minimum, stop showing up at the polls if they lose their Insane Rabid Monkey. They’ve tasted too much red meat to be satisfied with the GOP Establishment’s pink slime. And this is why they don’t quit and go public, and why I don’t think it’s Pence. Without the IRM, they’ll lose interest, and the worst of the GOP will lose voters. Assuming Lodestar & Co were part of the campaign, they’re the ones who drove\* the real “fake news” machine to victory. \*Working, of course, with Putin. Which is another reason for anonymity: staying out of Mueller’s crosshairs. [Emphasis added. Without spellcheck, I never would have noticed this wordplay. Well done.] ---
**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:** [September 7, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25096 "2018-09-07T00:24:01Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > … I suspect a lot of these people know that when history is written Trump is going to go down as the worst president ever, and they don’t want to be remembered like John Mitchell and the other Watergate filth - so they are spinning things that they are protecting the country from Trump… I agree with this theory on why the op-ed was written. Someone is trying to massage their image (the image of everyone who works in the Trump Administration) and spin it as ‘we are the noble protectors of the nation.’ As for doing it anonymously instead of putting their name on it: someone today mentioned that Cyrus Vance quit in protest (instead of writing an anonymous letter, perhaps) when he disagreed with Carter: > [@](#): > > Cyrus Roberts Vance was appointed Secretary of State by President Jimmy Carter on January 21, 1977. He entered his position on January 23 and resigned on April 28, 1980 in protest over President Carter’s decision to attempt a military rescue of American hostages in Iran. [Cyrus Roberts Vance - People - Department History - Office of the Historian](https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/vance-cyrus-roberts) Vance quit and was replaced and the hostages weren’t released until after Carter’s successor Reagan was being inaugurated. But the point the speaker was making was that this quitting-in-protest made barely a ripple in the public consciousness, back then. Whereas everyone is talking about this anonymous op-ed. So the theory here is that by doing the arguably less-honorable thing (by being anonymous), the writer is accomplishing more. Whether the writer’s goal is to make himself look good, or is actually to inspire some action that could get the mentally-ill incumbent out of the Oval Office (via 25th Amendment or impeachment or a committee of Republicans convincing him to resign)–either way, going the ‘anonymous’ route has made the revelations more powerful than they would otherwise have been. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25097 "2018-09-07T01:24:30Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > Suggestion from another board for the OpEd writer’s codename: Derpthroat. I heard DeepThwart. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25098 "2018-09-07T01:33:05Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > **ThelmLou** is convinced the author is VeepThroat. Her and [Chuck Tingle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H4JSZVP/). ---
**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:** [September 7, 2018, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25099 "2018-09-07T02:03:55Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Her and [Chuck Tingle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H4JSZVP/). I don’t think it’s Pence. I think it’s a group. ---
**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:** [September 7, 2018, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25100 "2018-09-07T02:20:49Z")
It was Melania and Ivanka. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25101 "2018-09-07T02:27:43Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Her and [Chuck Tingle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H4JSZVP/). I’m sure he’s already writing “Domald Tromp Gets Pounded in the Butt By An Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed”. 😃 ---
**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:** [September 7, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25102 "2018-09-07T02:41:06Z")
Omarosa thinks it’s a Pence aide, [https://www.wsbradio.com/news/national-govt--politics/someone-pence-staff-omarosa-wsb-radio-about-nyt-president-trump/GiVQSkTLyOSnJIvsxyOOLN/](https://www.wsbradio.com/news/national-govt--politics/someone-pence-staff-omarosa-wsb-radio-about-nyt-president-trump/GiVQSkTLyOSnJIvsxyOOLN/) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25103 "2018-09-07T03:00:11Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Vance quit and was replaced and the hostages weren’t released until after Carter’s successor Reagan was being inaugurated. But the point the speaker was making was that this quitting-in-protest made barely a ripple in the public consciousness, back then. > > Whereas everyone is talking about this anonymous op-ed. So the theory here is that by doing the arguably less-honorable thing (by being anonymous), the writer is accomplishing more. Whether the writer’s goal is to make himself look good, or is actually to inspire some action that could get the mentally-ill incumbent out of the Oval Office (via 25th Amendment or impeachment or a committee of Republicans convincing him to resign)–either way, going the ‘anonymous’ route has made the revelations more powerful than they would otherwise have been. I agree. Given the massive turnover, both from firing and quitting, one more rat leaving the ship wouldn’t make much of an impact. Now we have Dial T for Trump - The phone call is coming from inside the White House! ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25104 "2018-09-07T03:14:04Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > What’s this response based on? **You have no idea who it is.** The Times presumably does, and thought it was newsworthy. Why should we worry about this? It’s not like anything they’re saying is out of line with the rest of what we know from this administration. That’s the entire point: you have no idea who it is. We’re left to trust the editorial judgment of a handful of people to make the determination for us. We’re not talking about anonymous insiders debating whether tax cuts for the top 1% are actually helping working class Americans; the op-ed purports to impugn the fitness of the president to carry out the will of half of American voters. This is pretty effing big stuff, so there is no margin for error, misjudgment, or miscalculation. If this “senior adviser” is someone who turns out to be an underwhelming source, it lends credence to the theory that the free press isn’t capable of living up to the responsibility of serving its mission. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1254) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1256)