# 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:** 1481
**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:** [January 17, 2019, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29605 "2019-01-17T04:43:57Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > And I followed blindly along. > > Ooops. Sorry, TOWP! > > (Also, JohnT, is your screen name a reference to [Rio Bravo](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053221/?ref_=nv_sr_1), by any chance?) Naw, first name, last initial. I figured out the internet was shit for privacy pretty early on, so I’m a variant of JohnT wherever I register and have been for 25-odd years. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2019, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29606 "2019-01-17T04:45:34Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Because he’s too irrational and stupid to manipulate reliably, both by his allies or his enemies. That was a complaint of his handlers during the campaign; he’s forget any advice they gave him almost immediately. Sure, he forgets advice. And plans and facts and details and promises. But all the evidence says he never forgets a grudge. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29607 "2019-01-17T04:53:49Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > (The Great Waldo Pepper, starring Robert Redford) I’ve got a friend who’ll greet a group of us with \*“Hellllo, good people!” \*And I’m the only one who knows it was Waldo Pepper’s signature greeting as he taxied up in his biplane. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29608 "2019-01-17T05:01:23Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Lol, I acronymed the movie, not the poster. My bad! > > (The Great Waldo Pepper, starring Robert Redford) > [@Morgyn](#): > > And I followed blindly along. > > Ooops. Sorry, TOWP! A pox on your hairlines and kneecaps, for making me think harder than I needed to. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29609 "2019-01-17T05:59:42Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Hmm… The guidelines for living a life of “moral purity” appear to be all penis police stuff. Nothing in there about abstaining from cooperating with foreign adversaries At All. What they call “biblical lifestyle” would exclude the immense majority of biblical patriarchs (polygamous), kings (if I catch it I fuck it) and prophets (unmarried). Pelosi didn’t merely tell Trump what to do: she did it in a way that can also be construed as giving him permission. All that she left out is a few pats on the head. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29610 "2019-01-17T07:33:09Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The one thing which hasn’t been mentioned, TGWP, is the _perception_ of powerlessness which Pelosi just hoisted upon the President. Even if he says “No, TV is great, that’s where I shine best”, he will still be on TV, by himself, because Nancy Pelosi said “Naw, don’t want this.” > > I don’t really care about the effect this will have on Individual-1, but the effect on the more worshipful members of his _base_ will be profound as they see him alone because Pelosi banished him from Congress. Jimmy Breslin touched on this (in regards to Nixon and Watergate) in [How the Good Guys Finally Won](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/720321.How_the_Good_Guys_Finally_Won). I don’t have my copy to hand, but his thesis was that there is power and there is the illusion of power, and political “power” falls into the latter category. It’s all smoke and mirrors, and you only have power to the extent that others _think_ you have power. As Breslin put it, at the time Nixon resigned he may have been in the Oval Office, but he may as well have been a dogcatcher in Podunk. It may or may not be intentional, but it appears that Pelosi is chipping away at Trump’s illusion — and I wish her well. On another front, I heard (paraphrased) on MSNBC that Trump has delivered on his promise to run the government like his business:[ul] [li]Contractors are getting stiffed;[/li][li]Employees aren’t getting paid;[/li][li]There’s a huge fucking mess emblazoned with TRUMP in big(ly) letters.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29611 "2019-01-17T08:09:38Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > And McCain too. (It’s probably too soon still for the man’s death to have sunk in for that jackass in the White House.) That would accomplish two things: give Trump a stroke trying to figure out how to phonetically say “Ouija,” and cause Pence to run from the room screaming because he just encountered a ghost that wasn’t Holy. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2019, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29612 "2019-01-17T08:50:53Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I like your words very much. They’re the best words. The very best. 😉 (No, really; they are.) > [@Superdude](#): > > That would accomplish two things: give Trump a stroke trying to figure out how to phonetically say “Ouija,” and cause Pence to run from the room screaming because he just encountered a ghost that wasn’t Holy. Okay. I’m not seeing a downside for that. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2019, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29613 "2019-01-17T12:25:27Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > Jimmy Breslin touched on this (in regards to Nixon and Watergate) in [How the Good Guys Finally Won](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/720321.How_the_Good_Guys_Finally_Won). I don’t have my copy to hand, but his thesis was that there is power and there is the illusion of power, and political “power” falls into the latter category. It’s all smoke and mirrors, and you only have power to the extent that others _think_ you have power. As Breslin put it, at the time Nixon resigned he may have been in the Oval Office, but he may as well have been a dogcatcher in Podunk. It may or may not be intentional, but it appears that Pelosi is chipping away at Trump’s illusion — and I wish her well. > > On another front, I heard (paraphrased) on MSNBC that Trump has delivered on his promise to run the government like his business:[ul] > [li]Contractors are getting stiffed;[/li][li]Employees aren’t getting paid;[/li][li]There’s a huge fucking mess emblazoned with TRUMP in big(ly) letters.[/li][/ul] To further my point, this just came out in WaPo: [Democrats and activists punish Trump with a new strategy: Ignoring him](https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/democrats-and-activists-punish-trump-with-a-new-strategy-ignoring-him/2019/01/16/192ed646-185c-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html) > [@](#): > > Sen. Elizabeth Warren, once one of President Trump’s biggest antagonists on Twitter, isn’t engaging the president these days — even after he went after the Massachusetts Democrat, her husband, and her beer. Trump didn’t come up in the Golden Globe Awards this year, a departure from the past two years where he was maligned repeatedly from the stage. A satirical cable show about him has been canceled. A group of rank-and-file House Democrats turned down Trump’s invitation to have lunch at the White House on Tuesday. > > Trump, who recently pined about being lonely in the White House, is lately finding himself in a position he’s rarely been in over the past few years: Ignored. > > His political cachet has been driven by an unerring ability to goad other people into fights that benefit him. The metric he cares about is owning the television ratings and national attention, more than polling or anything else. > > So what happens when, instead, he is met with something of a shrug? > > The new silent treatment limits Trump’s ability to dictate national coverage and frame the day’s debate. And it’s providing an early template for how Democratic presidential candidates may attempt to deal with him in 2020, essentially forcing him out of a conversation they want to have with voters. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2019, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29614 "2019-01-17T12:30:28Z")
Guys, I’m beginning to come around to the idea that the GOP’s current coalition of Russians, Rednecks, and Racists isn’t doing a good job of governing this country. Anybody else beginning to feel this way? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29615 "2019-01-17T12:34:10Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > It would probably be a tweet. I’m pretty sure Donny Two-scoops can condense any thoughts he’s had about this country down to 140 characters. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “State of the Union-Sad.” See? But you left out, “Russia - Good, Rocket Man still pwned.” ---
**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 17, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29616 "2019-01-17T12:37:19Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > To further my point, this just came out in WaPo: > > [Democrats and activists punish Trump with a new strategy: Ignoring him](https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/democrats-and-activists-punish-trump-with-a-new-strategy-ignoring-him/2019/01/16/192ed646-185c-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html) Good holy God… we’ve\* been saying that around here from Day One of this so-called administration! Deny him the audience, don’t engage, don’t wind him up, don’t give him the satisfaction, don’t play HIS GAME. IOW treat him the way we treat SDMB trolls. The narcissist craves attention. Do not give it to him. Make his head explode. \*Well, I have, anyway. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29617 "2019-01-17T13:35:58Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > \*Well, I have, anyway. :dubious: I’ve been with you on this, from the start. Trump has always been a nothing–a troll of no intrinsic value who exploits publicity to scam suckers. He had to pay people to attend his campaign announcement. Every time he said something racist or xenophobic the media went into a tizzy and just amplified him, only to abet him, make his base of morons even happier, and normalize him. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29618 "2019-01-17T13:36:06Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Good holy God… we’ve\* been saying that around here from Day One of this so-called administration! Deny him the audience, don’t engage, don’t wind him up, don’t give him the satisfaction, don’t play HIS GAME. IOW treat him the way we treat SDMB trolls. The narcissist craves attention. Do not give it to him. Make his head explode. > > \*Well, I have, anyway. :dubious: Clearly WE should be running the show 😃 ---
**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 17, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29619 "2019-01-17T14:13:44Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Clearly WE should be running the show 😃 YES! A cabinet made up of Dopers would probably do a pretty good job! ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29620 "2019-01-17T14:23:47Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > YES! A cabinet made up of Dopers would probably do a pretty good job! If nominated I will not run, if appointed I will not serve. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29621 "2019-01-17T14:24:46Z")
At least until the power went to our heads. ---
**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:** [January 17, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29622 "2019-01-17T14:29:51Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Rudy Guiliani to Chris Cuomo on CNN tonight: > > "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign… I have not. I said” no collision with, “the President of the United States.” > > [https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1085725959653871616/video/1](https://t.co/Smb0OuNzL9) > > There’s not a bus big enough to run over all the people Rudy just threw under it. Maybe if it backs up a few times. I predict Rudy will soon be saying “I never said Donald Trump didn’t collude with the Russians. I said the President of the United States didn’t collude with the Russians.” ---
**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 17, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29623 "2019-01-17T14:37:00Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > To further my point, this just came out in WaPo: > > [Democrats and activists punish Trump with a new strategy: Ignoring him](https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/democrats-and-activists-punish-trump-with-a-new-strategy-ignoring-him/2019/01/16/192ed646-185c-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html) Good article. I concur. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/29624 "2019-01-17T14:51:12Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Clearly WE should be running the show 😃 Long live the Pax Dente! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1480) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1482)