# 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:** 1453
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29045 "2019-01-08T19:58:24Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand quantum mechanics, but this sounds like Schroendinger’s Government: the shutdown exists because of a national emergency, and the emergency is due to the shutdown? > > My head hurts. > > Excuse me please, while I sign up to donate all of my blood and organs to RBG, Sotomayor, etc. Just in case. > [@Johanna](#): > > Not Schrödinger. The other umlaut guy. > > **Möbius.** By coincidence, this is in _Politico_ today: [Trump’s Metaphysical Wall: An Investigation Does the president think we already have a border wall?](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/08/trump-border-wall-trumpology-metaphysical-223799) > [@](#): > > Observe: > [Trump tweets]\* > …The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a “profit making operation.” We build a Wall or… > > …close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border…\*[/Trump tweets] > > The crisis is encapsulated wholly in that last sentence. “Build (finish)”—Trump’s inability to classify the state in which The Wall may or may not exist has caused observers to either speculate about the political motives behind his rhetoric, or simply shake their heads and walk away in confusion. It could be that his previous triumphalism and spin has been tempered by fact-checkers, forcing him into equivocation, but past behavior makes this scenario unlikely. > > The utterly inexplicable nature of his speech on the topic suggests a man in deeper crisis. Trump may be perceiving under his duress, to slightly adapt a concept from quantum mechanics, a **Schrödinger’s Wall** : simultaneously there and not there, conditional on a random quirk of perception occurring somewhere underneath his flaxen coif. That perception, however flawed it may be, becomes a feature of our own reality, as hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers can now attest. [my edits for clarity] ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29046 "2019-01-08T20:00:32Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [According to the CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html) [emphasis mine]: Wee don’t need no steenkeeng factses. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29047 "2019-01-08T20:18:08Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Wee don’t need no steenkeeng factses. I know, right? My Trump-supporting uncle posted a meme a couple of weeks ago that purported to show a Central-American migrant ravaged with smallpox, who was trying to get into the U.S. It makes no difference that smallpox has (rather famously) been eradicated. He believes poxy invaders are at our border. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29048 "2019-01-08T20:31:37Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Check out USA Today’s pre-address warm-up: > [MSN](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/9-things-you-should-know-before-trump-starts-spewing-lies-in-tuesday-address-to-the-nation/ar-BBRXxUA) > > They predict “spewing lies” right in the title! Extraordinary times! The first bullet point should be moved down to the end and the second bullet point should go down a notch or two. The article is reasonably well written except they shoot themselves in the foot by starting with a sort of nonsense point that it’s not clear what it has to do with anything (ships have stopped coming into port since the tide went out past the docks - no need to build a customs depot! Oh wait, the tide will come in again…!? Who coulda guessed!) and then a second point that I don’t think most of the people actually worry about. Their first point also isn’t true. Illegal immigration has fallen, and some of that happened when the economy went bust, but it still continued to go down as the economy **improved**. Obama instituted a bunch of measures to reduce illegal immigration and those things worked. The numbers have held still since Trump took office. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29049 "2019-01-08T20:33:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I know, right? > > My Trump-supporting uncle posted a meme a couple of weeks ago that purported to show a Central-American migrant ravaged with smallpox, who was trying to get into the U.S. It makes no difference that smallpox has (rather famously) been eradicated. He believes poxy invaders are at our border. Wow. At least the Nazis accused Jews of harboring diseases that _still existed._ ---
**Author:** ![Kelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@Kelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29050 "2019-01-08T20:36:12Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Wow. At least the Nazis accused Jews of harboring diseases that _still existed._ Jesus wept. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29051 "2019-01-08T20:39:42Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Wee don’t need no steenkeeng factses. Facts just confuse people. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29052 "2019-01-08T20:54:22Z")
FWIW, [this](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d6/a7/84/d6a78438040baaeea85cf6a9f904d0e4.jpg) is the image my uncle shared. I couldn’t find it with the text that was on the image he shared, but it _did_ say the guy had smallpox and was trying to get into the U.S. The guy has _something_, but if the CDC are to be believed, it ain’t smallpox. Maybe he fell asleep near an ant hill. . ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29053 "2019-01-08T21:56:32Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > FWIW, [this](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d6/a7/84/d6a78438040baaeea85cf6a9f904d0e4.jpg) is the image my uncle shared. I couldn’t find it with the text that was on the image he shared, but it _did_ say the guy had smallpox and was trying to get into the U.S. The guy has _something_, but if the CDC are to be believed, it ain’t smallpox. Maybe he fell asleep near an ant hill. > > . According to wikipedia, chicken pox tends to produce a rash concentrated on the torso while smallpox tended to produce a rash concentrated on the extremities, including the head and face. So that guy looks like he has chicken pox. And I’m guessing that someone with smallpox wouldn’t be looking as healthy as that guy looks. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29054 "2019-01-08T22:12:19Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > And I’m guessing that someone with smallpox wouldn’t be looking as healthy as that guy looks. He might _look_ okay, but would sure stink of formaldehyde. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29055 "2019-01-08T22:26:34Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > FWIW, [this](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d6/a7/84/d6a78438040baaeea85cf6a9f904d0e4.jpg) is the image my uncle shared. I couldn’t find it with the text that was on the image he shared, but it _did_ say the guy had smallpox and was trying to get into the U.S. The guy has _something_, but if the CDC are to be believed, it ain’t smallpox. Maybe he fell asleep near an ant hill. > > . Dang. That poor sumbitch. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29056 "2019-01-08T22:39:58Z")
I can’t understand what Trump hopes to accomplish. He lies so often that nothing he has to say actually means anything. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29057 "2019-01-08T22:44:17Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Dang. That poor sumbitch. ☹ The guy in the photo, or my uncle? ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29058 "2019-01-08T22:45:18Z")
> [@JB99](#): > > I can’t understand what Trump hopes to accomplish. He lies so often that nothing he has to say actually means anything. Everything he says is The Truth, according to his flock. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29059 "2019-01-08T22:46:32Z")
> [@JB99](#): > > I can’t understand what Trump hopes to accomplish. He lies so often that nothing he has to say actually means anything. He wants to make people stop talking about how " Paul Manafort was sharing polling data and discussing Russian-Ukrainian policy with his close Russian-intelligence-linked associate, Konstantin Kilimnik,\*\* while he led the Trump presidential campaign\*\*" He want’s people to ignore the fact that his campaign manager is a traitor, and that it is highly likely that Manafort was conducting his traitorous activities with the full knowledge and complicity of one Donald Trump. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29060 "2019-01-08T23:28:51Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > All the networks should tell him to go fuck himself. More realistically, they should charge him their usual rates for running political ads. Kellyanne’s husband George Conway tweeted the fundraising email he got from Trump, which includes exhortations to watch The Show (the 9pm address) and to send Trump money “to have your name sent to me after my speech.” It also includes the remarkable claim that Americans have signed 2,OOO,OOO (ohs, not zeroes) petitions in favor of The Wall. NOT two million signatures on a petition----two million separate petitions, each with one signature. You know, like you do. > ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29061 "2019-01-08T23:43:23Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > More realistically, they should charge him their usual rates for running political ads. > > Kellyanne’s husband George Conway tweeted the fundraising email he got from Trump, which includes exhortations to watch The Show (the 9pm address) and to send Trump money “to have your name sent to me after my speech.” > > It also includes the remarkable claim that Americans have signed 2,OOO,OOO (ohs, not zeroes) petitions in favor of The Wall. NOT two million signatures on a petition----two million separate petitions, each with one signature. > > You know, like you do. > > [https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1082717035929522178](https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1082717035929522178) According to that Tweet, he wants to have a list of all the people who have donated and are standing with him in this time of need… I hope somebody creates a second list that I can sign of all the people who stand against him now. Trump is looking for validation and I want to play my small part in ruining that for him ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29062 "2019-01-08T23:49:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > FWIW, [this](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d6/a7/84/d6a78438040baaeea85cf6a9f904d0e4.jpg) is the image my uncle shared. I couldn’t find it with the text that was on the image he shared, but it _did_ say the guy had smallpox and was trying to get into the U.S. The guy has _something_, but if the CDC are to be believed, it ain’t smallpox. Maybe he fell asleep near an ant hill… According to [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/immigration-border-disease-risk/), the guy has scabies, a skin condition caused by microscopic mites. The picture was taken during a scabies outbreak among migrants at the southern border in 2014. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29063 "2019-01-08T23:52:54Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [According to the CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html) [emphasis mine]: Yeah I know, but they [likely don’t](https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-commentator-says-migrants-are-carrying-smallpox-a-disease-eradicated-in-1980) (i.e. its a joke son). ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29064 "2019-01-08T23:54:31Z")
> [@Defensive\_Indifference](#): > > According to [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/immigration-border-disease-risk/), the guy has scabies, a skin condition caused by microscopic mites. The picture was taken during a scabies outbreak among migrants at the southern border in 2014. So, Obama fucked up again? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1452) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1454)