# 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:** 1353
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27045 "2018-11-10T03:28:08Z")
Guess I should have seen it coming: due to Trump’s innate inability to vet any of his appointees for anything other than whether they say nice things about him, the Whittaker appointment is rapidly turning into Scaramucci II, with a side of Trump University Redux. Yeah, most of the time the spectacular incompetence of the current White House is a cause for weeping, but that’s leavened by occasional bursts of hilarity like the above. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27046 "2018-11-10T03:36:47Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Guess I should have seen it coming: due to Trump’s innate inability to vet any of his appointees for anything other than whether they say nice things about him, the Whittaker appointment is rapidly turning into Scaramucci II, with a side of Trump University Redux. > > Yeah, most of the time the spectacular incompetence of the current White House is a cause for weeping, but that’s leavened by occasional bursts of hilarity like the above. It’s only funny until he gets confirmed. Of course the Senate is going to confirm him as the official AG. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27047 "2018-11-10T03:41:23Z")
> [@Defensive\_Indifference](#): > > It’s only funny until he gets confirmed. Of course the Senate is going to confirm him as the official AG. I disagree. IMHO, Whittaker is burnt toast, but we’ll see what’s what pretty directly. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27048 "2018-11-10T04:04:21Z")
Matthew Whitaker believes that states have the right to nullify federal law. [http://www.weny.com/story/39456613/whitaker-said-he-supports-states-rights-to-nullify-federal-law](http://www.weny.com/story/39456613/whitaker-said-he-supports-states-rights-to-nullify-federal-law) ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27049 "2018-11-10T04:44:02Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Matthew Whitaker believes that states have the right to nullify federal law. > [http://www.weny.com/story/39456613/whitaker-said-he-supports-states-rights-to-nullify-federal-law](http://www.weny.com/story/39456613/whitaker-said-he-supports-states-rights-to-nullify-federal-law) I guess they can always secede and find out how that goes… ---
**Author:** ![Batano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Batano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batano)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27050 "2018-11-10T05:01:52Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Guess I should have seen it coming: due to Trump’s innate inability to vet any of his appointees for anything other than whether they say nice things about him, the Whittaker appointment is rapidly turning into Scaramucci II, with a side of Trump University Redux. > > Yeah, most of the time the spectacular incompetence of the current White House is a cause for weeping, but that’s leavened by occasional bursts of hilarity like the above. Did I miss some news? What is in his closet? ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27051 "2018-11-10T05:08:09Z")
[Well, there’s this](https://apnews.com/460f855404aa4464a295bcfc0f75743d): > [@](#): > > Before coming to the Justice Department in 2017, Whitaker was president and executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a charitable organization that styles itself as nonpartisan government watchdog promoting ethics and transparency. The tax-exempt group — known by its initials, FACT — is supposed to serve the public interest under Section 501c3 of the U.S. tax code, without directly or even indirectly supporting or opposing specific candidates for office. > > Yet the group has engaged in one partisan pronouncement after another, mostly directed at Democrats. During the last presidential race, Whitaker argued in July 2016 newspaper opinion pieces that Clinton should be prosecuted for her handling of her private email server — a favorite talking point of Donald Trump. The opinion pieces identified Whitaker as FACT’s leader. > [@](#): > > Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch, a Chicago-based group that monitors the nonprofit world, said that statement appears to violate the IRS ban on engagement for or against a particular political candidate. “It’s highly critical of a candidate, and he ought not to be doing that, because it’s a political partisan comment,” he said. > [@](#): > > FACT was founded in 2015, tax filings show. Whitaker drew a sizable portion of its budget as his salary as president and executive director — in 2016 he earned more than twice what leaders of similar groups were paid on average that year, according to data from another watchdog group, Charity Navigator. > > In 2015 and 2016, Whitaker earned a total of $654,000 from FACT — 30 percent of its entire spending of $2.2 million over that two-year span. His 2016 salary was $402,000; the average CEO or executive director at 380 advocacy or education charities in that year made a salary of $173,099, according to Matthew J. Viola, a vice president at Charity Navigator. TL; DR - Whitaker seems to have run a sham non-profit so he could rake in donor money and escape taxes on it. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27052 "2018-11-10T05:46:03Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Matthew Whitaker believes that states have the right to nullify federal law. > [http://www.weny.com/story/39456613/whitaker-said-he-supports-states-rights-to-nullify-federal-law](http://www.weny.com/story/39456613/whitaker-said-he-supports-states-rights-to-nullify-federal-law) On the plus side, we’ve got the green light to nullify the 2nd amendment. Let’s get gun-grabbin’! ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27053 "2018-11-10T05:55:27Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Trump loyalist Matthew Whittaker was counseling White House on investigating Clinton > > [Exclusive: Matthew Whitaker advised Donald Trump on investigating Hillary Clinton - Vox](https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2018/11/9/18080656/matthew-whitaker-trump-hillary-clinton-sessions-attorney-general) > > I thought Trump said today that he doesn’t know this guy. That’s this month. Last month he said he knew the guy. Really. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27054 "2018-11-10T05:55:42Z")
A recent [article in _Rolling Stone_](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-birth-control-abortion-753010/) almost deserves its own Pit thread. CFSG is installing decent, upstanding Christians in important positions in the Department of Health and Human Services. Those good people who have a much better handle on how you should be behaving than you do. It begins by talking about an official making inquiries to a doctor about what would happen if a woman had taken an abortifacient and failed to take the second dose in the prescribed time (which was _totally not_ about a person in custody at the border – I mean _totally_). I got through a dozen paragraphs of the article before I decided I wanted to keep the dinner I just ate. It is that disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27055 "2018-11-10T06:56:01Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > That’s this month. Last month he said he knew the guy. Really. And he’s the best guy. Because I’ve got the best people, the best. I’m very good at people! And this guy and me, we’re close, we’re so close, you wouldn’t believe it. You wouldn’t believe how close we are. Have Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone ever been so… political? I remember the occasional politics-related article on the cover of the Spanish edition of RS, but it’s usually something that’s got some relationship with music and the arts (interview with Minister for Culture, Education and the Arts, for example), and not along the lines of “this guy is a clown”. We’ve had our share of clowns (with my apologies to circus workers) and they didn’t make the cover of RS. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27056 "2018-11-10T08:52:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > That’s this month. Last month he said he knew the guy. Really. Either his dementia is progressing rapidly, or he’s just so unaware of what a bad liar he is that he thinks he can get away with claiming he doesn’t know the man he just (illegally) picked to run the DOJ. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27057 "2018-11-10T10:54:24Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Either his dementia is progressing rapidly, or he’s just so unaware of what a bad liar he is that he thinks he can get away with claiming he doesn’t know the man he just (illegally) picked to run the DOJ. All evidence thus far is he can lie like a rug and he suffers no actual consequences. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27058 "2018-11-10T11:23:42Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > **‘The guardrails are off’: Trump takes aggressive moves he resisted before elections** > [https://wapo.st/2qyOKOQ](https://wapo.st/2qyOKOQ) > > I was going to post this, but WaPo said it well. If you thought he was out of control before, you ain’t seen nuttin’ yet. Here’s more information about our new acting AG – Christ, you know it’s bad when the Washington Examiner is refusing to play propagandist on this one. > **[Matthew Whitaker went straight from a sleazy scam company to acting attorney...](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/1078689/matthew-whitaker-went-straight-from-a-sleazy-scam-company-to-acting-attorney-general/)** > > Just one day after the midterm elections, Trump took his revenge on embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions. With his resignation in hand, at the president’s request, Trump moved quickly to appoint someone who would be decidedly more loyal. His... > [@](#): > > Prior to his gig in the Trump administration, Whitaker was a member of the advisory board of World Patent Marketing, a Florida company that got the corporate equivalent of a death sentence from a federal judge for ripping off customers. In May 2018 Judge Darrin Gayles shut down the company, ordered it to pay a fine of about $26 million, and blocked defendants from future participation in any “invention promotion service” following a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission. And then there’s this from Vox: > **[Exclusive: Trump loyalist Matthew Whitaker was counseling the White House on...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/9/18080656/matthew-whitaker-trump-hillary-clinton-sessions-attorney-general)** > > Whitaker advised the president on launching a new special counsel while working as chief of staff for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. > [@](#): > > Matthew Whitaker, whom President Donald Trump named as his acting attorney general on Wednesday, privately provided advice to the president last year on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to investigate the president’s political adversaries, Vox has learned. Whitaker is a political hack acting as the nation’s top lawyer. He’s even worse than Robert Bork. The rule of law as we know it as in serious danger right now. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27059 "2018-11-10T11:27:56Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > A recent [article in _Rolling Stone_](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-birth-control-abortion-753010/) almost deserves its own Pit thread. CFSG is installing decent, upstanding Christians in important positions in the Department of Health and Human Services. Those good people who have a much better handle on how you should be behaving than you do. It begins by talking about an official making inquiries to a doctor about what would happen if a woman had taken an abortifacient and failed to take the second dose in the prescribed time (which was _totally not_ about a person in custody at the border – I mean _totally_). > > I got through a dozen paragraphs of the article before I decided I wanted to keep the dinner I just ate. It is that disgusting. I’ll repeat what I said: it’s the Christian warriors we should fear. Donald Trump is aligning his administration with hardcore Christian fanatics. He is giving religious zealots unprecedented access to power, because it suits them and it suits him. They get unprecedented access to power, and because of that, they will go to extraordinary lengths to protect him. They don’t give a god damn about the Constitution or the rule of law. He’s going to load the government with Christian nutters. Imagine what happens when he starts front-loading our military with zealot generals. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27060 "2018-11-10T12:38:40Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > And he’s the best guy. Because I’ve got the best people, the best. I’m very good at people! And this guy and me, we’re close, we’re so close, you wouldn’t believe it. You wouldn’t believe how close we are. > > Have Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone ever been so… political? I remember the occasional politics-related article on the cover of the Spanish edition of RS, but it’s usually something that’s got some relationship with music and the arts (interview with Minister for Culture, Education and the Arts, for example), and not along the lines of “this guy is a clown”. We’ve had our share of clowns (with my apologies to circus workers) and they didn’t make the cover of RS. Can’t speak for VF, but much of _Rolling Stone_’s early reputation was made on on political content, particularly the immortal Hunter S. Thompson’s dispatches during the '72 Presidential campaign. See _Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72_. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27061 "2018-11-10T13:16:17Z")
> [@Batano](#): > > Did I miss some news? What is in his closet? Well, mainly the World Patent Marketing thing mentioned by another poster, although the (apparent) FACT non-profit scam seems to be a contender as well. As I understand it, Whittaker has been appointed in part to oversee an agency (the FBI) that is currently investigating a company that the Justice Department’s new boss was deeply involved with. Even for Trump’s merry band of reprobates, that’s a bit much. Guess we’ll see if Whittaker ever even makes it to a confirmation hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27062 "2018-11-10T14:16:11Z")
Quick GQ question: Has the white house come forward with an official explanation as to why Sessions was fired? I mean its obvious that it was about the Mueller investigation, but I’m curious what the official word is (if any). When a reporter asked this directly, she was lambasted by the president for asking a stupid questions (which was distracting enough that in the process he _forgot_ to answer it) but they can’t avoid the obvious question forever. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27063 "2018-11-10T14:32:27Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Either his dementia is progressing rapidly, or he’s just so unaware of what a bad liar he is that he thinks he can get away with claiming he doesn’t know the man he just (illegally) picked to run the DOJ. Or he understands his base. Lying to them is like lying to your dog. They’ll believe anything he says even if what he says today contradicts what he said yesterday. Trump’s problem is he doesn’t grasp what people outside his base are thinking. He goes to a rally and thousands of people are cheering for him; he then mistakenly believes that they represent the nation as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/27064 "2018-11-10T15:06:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Have Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone ever been so… political? You should see what Teen Vogue is publishing these days! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1352) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1354)